l^MlIt ^mti 















i' #'^~s 



.-.- ^'M, v; 






■\i% 



% >-^^v 



%..JiJ{ TOLEDO, 6i^:JikJ 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, 

Chap. Copyright No. 

Shelf_.__.*.15j^^ 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



1896 



AND 



The Five Redemption Years 



A Blade 0' Grass 



^ 



.r/f 



By W. H. bishop 



Author of "The Garden of Eden, U. S. A.," etc., etc. 







,A (TOLEDO. 0. )J J ; 



\j' 



-^v' 




^ 



^n 



Copyright, 1896, by W. H. Bishop. 



1896, AND The Five Redemption Years. 



CONTENTS. 



BOOK I.^THE WASTED CENTURIES. 

TOPICS. 

Whose Fault ? 

Orthodox Heresy. 

Ministers and Christian Progress. 

Not the Letter, but the Spirit. 

Bhnd Leaders of the Blind. 

A Modified Bible. 

Concerning the Masses. 

Are these Things True? 

BOOK II.— A CENTURY TO BE REDEEMED, 

What World Redemption Means. 

One Single Soul and a World to Save. 

The Redemption of a Community. 

Forward, or the Retreat. 

Men can be Won. 

A Signboard Religion. 

Wanted: Modern Ideas and a Tittle Vim» 

Five Years Knough. 



BOOK III.— THE CRUSADE PLAN. 

A World Forgotten. 

A Push for the Masses. 

An Open Door. 

Into Ever}- Home. 

The Neighborhood Club. 

The Matter of Entertainment. 

How Organized. 

What shall This Man Do? 

What shall the City Man Do? 

Suggestions. 

Applied Christianity. 

The Ultimate Man. 

The Time Required. 

BOOK IV.— THE TALE OF THE CENTURY BELLS* 

A Turning Point in Thought. 

The Alternative. 

Man Face to Face with God. 

Who will Help? 

And Heaven will Help! 

Who will Lead. 

A A'oice, but not the A^oice of Man. 

Half Way Measures. 

Sons of God, or Kings of Self? 

The Lord Omnipotent Reigneth! 

Serve Ye the Lord I 

The New Crusade. 

The Final Contention. 



1896, 

AND 

The Five Redemption Years* 



Book: I. 

THE WASTED CENTURIES. 



Whose Fault? 

Is it the fault of God, or 
of the Christian church, that 
the world is not saved? 

Possibly it is a bold ques- 
tion, and yet in a search for 
the causes which underlie 
the present moral condition 
of the world, it is a question 
that can fairly be asked, and 
an honest answer demanded . 
Nearly two millenniums 
have passed since Christ 
came upon the earth to re- 
deem it, and since he gave into the hands of his disciples 
the work of converting men to the truth, and making it pos- 
sible for God to save them. After all these lagging cen- 




6 1896, AND THE FIVE REDEMPTION YEARS. 

turies the world is not saved, not even our own country", 
which we are accustomed to call the most enlightened one 
upon the face of the earth. Whose fault is it that it is not? 

Christian men, even in these more enlightened times, 
have been wont to hide behind the letter of the Scripture, 
and to declare that the}' are not at fault. God, in his infin- 
ite wisdom, has not seen fit to save the world; or sinners, 
in the hardness of their hearts, have refused to be converted. 
God has not even inspired his disciples to work more dili- 
genth' for the world's salvation. As the inspiration for 
every good work must come from God, Christian people are 
not to blame for the unsatisfactory moral condition of man- 
kind. Inferentially and theologically it is God who is at 
fault. The Christian church goes scot free of blame ! 

The Word of God declares that it has pleased God, 
through the foolishness of preaching, to save those who 
believe. If we ignore the less positive teaching of the 
Scriptures upon this point, and make this text our Bible 
as far as this one point is concerned, it would seem that 
preaching is the only dul}' accredited means of saving the 
world. At least in apparent fidelit}' to this idea, the church 
has magnified the office of the preacher of the gospel until 
he stands almost alone as the human instrument of salva- 
tion in the modern church. He alone is considered the 
evangelist of the gospel of Christ, and in every village and 
hamlet in civilized countries there has been a pulpit erected 
for him, and our missionaries also occupy ever}' point of 
vantage in heathen lands. Surel}' it would seem that the 
divine commission had been fulfilled. We have preached 
the gospel continually and are still preaching, preaching, 
preaching; and yet the world is not saved. People will not 
even come into our churches and sit in the cushioned pews 
we have provided for them. We have certainly fulfilled the 
demands of the law, since the gospel is preached every- 
where. What more is needed? Wh}' is the world not 
saved? 



WHOSE FAULT .^ 7 

The Bible specifically makes faith the basis of salvation, 
and also teaches that the prayer of faith is duly answered. 
The church, reading the letter of the law in this respect, 
also, has established prayer-meeting rooms in connection 
with every place of wonship, and its membership is dili- 
gently exhorted to have greater faith in God, and in his 
power to save mankind from its sins. We have prayed 
times without number that the world might be saved, and 
that the church might receive a greater baptism of the 
Holy Spirit, and thus be better able to lead men to the 
Savior, but our prayers have not been answered. We have 
prayed diligently, and we have also paid for the preaching 
of the gospel in our churches, but still the world is not 
saved. What more can be lacking? 

A hundred years ago it was discovered that the pulpit 
was not well adapted to the work of preaching the gospel to 
children, and for this reason Sunda}' schools were estab- 
lished. This special work for the children has been carried 
forward until to-day every church organization has its 
Sunday school, where for one hour each week the children 
who care to attend are taught and catechized. We have not 
onl}^ allowed the children to come to Christ, but we have 
made the way easy. But still the world is not saved. Out 
of tw^enty young men growing up to manhood in our com- 
munities, and about to take the destinies of the world in 
their hands, only one listens to the preaching of the gOvSpel 
and is saved. The other nineteen, if they are ever in the 
Sunday school at all, drift out of it unsaved, and many of 
them leave it for the saloon or a life upon the street. We 
have preached, we have praj^ed, and, in addition to all this, 
we have catechized the children. Is not our duty much 
more than done? What more can reasonably be expected 
of us? Is it our fault that the world is not saved? 



8 1896, AXD THK FIVE REDEMPTIOX YEARS. 

Orthodox Heresy, 

There is no heresy hke that which disguises itself in the 
garb of truth and steals the letter of the Scripture to bolster 
up doctrines which are in contravention with common sense, 
and clearl}' opposed to the teaching of human experience. 
For there are three revelations from Heaven, not one, onh-, 
and these three are one in fact, for the}' are each written by 
God's own hand. These three books of revelation are the 
Bible, the Book of Nature, and the Book of Human Exper- 
ience. One alone, even though it ma}- be the Bible itself, 
may not give us a full conception of the truth, but where all 
agree upon any one point we ma}' be very sure that in that 
particular we have the clearly revealed will of God. 

The Book* of Nature makes it evident to us that our God 
is not a wizard, as some of us were taught in our infancy to 
believe, speaking worlds into existence with a breath, and 
ruling the world by haphazard decrees. He is rather the 
Wise Architect, working in accordance with well established 
laws which he has ordained, and to v\'hich he is himself 
subject. A careful study of the Book of Nature has not onh^ 
taught us this, but it has also given us broader and mor^ 
reasonable ideas of the Creator of the universe and a deeper 
insight into his character and into his work. He is a won- 
der-working God, surely, but his wonders are the product of 
wise and marvelous laws, not of jugglery or caprice. 

The Book of Human Experience, equally with the Book of 
Nature, is an interpreter of the Bible, and its plain teachings 
cannot be ignored. Doctrines which find no warrant in 
human experience, and which conflict with the reason which 
God has given to us, are clearly the work of men and not of 
God. The letter of the Scripture may sometimes be mislead- 
ing, but there is no reason why we should stumble and blun- 
der in seeking for a plain interpretation of its spirit. That is 
clear enough to one who takes the Bible as a whole and who 
reads it without prejudice. God works through material 



ORTHODOX HERESY. 9 

and human agencies, and it has pleased him, instead of 
making a race of automaton Christians, to make men free to 
choose, and yet to place before them the broadest opportun- 
ities and the highest possibilities. That he does leave them 
free to choose seems to be the clear teaching of human 
experience. Men are not slaves or puppets, even of the 
infinite God. 

We may be saved both morally and spiritually, we may 
make our lives noble and sublime, we may conquer the 
material univense and may even grasp the lightning and 
tame it to our purposes, we may also take into our hearts 
the very spirit of God, catching the breath of Heaven to 
sweeten and beautify our lives and broaden our characters, 
and thereby to become the very sons of God himself, but we 
are not compelled to do any of these things. We may lie 
down with the brutes, and in our self-imposed moral imbe- 
cility bleat our profane defiance into God's face, becoming 
degenerate sons of a degenerate race, animals by choice 
when the destiny of becoming sons of God is offered to us. 
It is for us to choose between these two destinies. The 
opportunity and the decision plainly lie within our reach, 
and while Heaven may prompt us to choose wisely, we may 
disregard that prompting without Heaven being at fault. 
Neither have we any reason to wait for a miracle which 
shall compel us to make a wise choice. In this God has hon- 
ored us more than he has honored the angels in Heaven. 
We are kings of our own destiny, arbiters of our own eternal 
happiness or misery. The earth and Heaven are ours if we 
will accept of them, but we must definitely choose the gift 
and make it ours. Not even God will compel our choice or 
our obedience. 

Neither is the church compelled by the overmastering 
power of God to be true to its Heavenlv appointed mission 
or to its opportunities. It has the power to redeem this 
world and save it from its sins and miseries if it will. Under 



lO 1896. AND THE FIVE REDEMPTION YEARS. 

God and by the help of the Holy Spirit it can make this 
earth a paradise, not in some far distant century, but in this 
one. It can reach out into the homes and the hearts of the 
people and win them for Christ and for the better destiny. 
It can rescue 3'oung men from the overmastering temptations 
that assail them, Irom lives of brutal passion, from self- 
indulgence and moral indifference, and can make them men 
in the fullest and best sense of the word. All this can be 
accomplished by the use of means that are ready at hand 
and of easy application, if Christian people will only think. 
There is no need whatever for us to wait for miracles before 
these things can be done. The power is clearh* within our- 
selves, supplemented as it will be if we will only accept it, 
and not be satisfied by simph- asking for it, by the infinite 
power of Heaven. 

Upon the other hand, the church can lie down in crim- 
inal imbecilit}' before ever}- opportunit}' and every puzzling 
problem, vainly calling upon God to do its thinking and to 
perform its duties for it ; it can be recreant to every charge 
and trust and to every principle of patriotism, of loyalty to 
God and to humanit\', and it can sa}' if it will, that it is not 
at fault because God in his infinite wisdom has not seen fit 
to save the world. The world belongs to the church and 
the rew^ards of both earth and Heaven are in its gift, but it 
must choose its destin}' and accept the work connected with 
its mission, or else weakl}' allow the work to go undone. 
Miracles will be wrought in its behalf if thej- are necessarj', 
but they will not be wrought until the church has done its 
full duty and exhausted every human means in the accomp- 
lishment of its purposes. The world will not be saved by 
any hocus pocus process, no matter how diligently the 
church may pray to be relieved of any thought or trouble 
in the matter. Effect will invariably follow cause, and 
miracles do not grow out of sloth and moral indifference. 
It is for the church to set in motion the controlling: causes 



ORTHODOX HERESY. II 

which shall reach and save every human being within the 
field of its influence. It has no right to wait until Heaven 
shall have done these things in its stead. This is also the 
clear teaching of human experience. This is the effective 
preaching of the gospel and the discipling of all men which 
Christ imposed upon his disciples and left to them as their 
sacred mission. This is the Christian service which the 
church owes to the world and which should have been per- 
formed centuries ago. 

God may yet save the world by a miracle of grace, but it 
will not be until the instrument he has chosen for that work, 
and has so greatly honored, has been broken and cast aside 
as useless. He will not forever wait upon an indolent 
church. This is the destiny w^hicli the Christian church is 
asking for when it prays so earnestly that God will convert 
the world by a miraculous display of his power, and when 
it ignores and wilfully puts aside the -wonderful opportuni- 
ties that are already before it. The church is asking that it 
may be set aside from the highest mission and the most 
glorious destiny that was ever given to mankind, the work 
of uplifting and upbuilding humanity and saving it, not b}^ 
heedless prayers, not by miracles from Heaven, but by the 
indomitable will and persistent energy of living sons of a 
living God. Christian men are asking that God shall set 
them aside and shall find some other means for the accomp- 
lishment of his purposes for mankind, and leave them to 
lazily dream of a Heaven they have neither revealed to 
others nor earned for themselves. 

The teaching of human experience and the spirit of Bible 
truth clearly teaches us that the work of the church is not 
to rehearse the words of the gospel of salvation in our 
churches, simply, leaving men to listen to it or not as they 
may choose, but to preach it effectively ; not to wait until 
the platitudes of modern sermonizing shall touch the hearts 
of men and convert them to the truth, but to actuall}- reach 



12 1896, AND THE FIVE REDEMPTION YEARS. 

men with the Christian influence and by the power of 
human sympathy and in the name of a holy cause, persuade 
them to become willing disciples of the Son of God. Turn- 
ing men to God is a human work and it is useless for us to 
pra}' to be relieved of it by the interposition of the Holy 
Spirit. Whatever the influence of the Spirit of God may 
be, it clearly does not trench upon or limit the field of 
human influence and effort. But saving men is God's work 
and with this we cannot meddle. Salvation is something 
that each man must settle with God for himself alone. 

The fact that the church has thus far signally- failed in 
this work of bringing the world to Christ, needs no proof 
or illustration. The world is not saved, nor is it likely to 
be as long as present methods and standards of success are 
accepted as sufficient. Not one hamlet or village the wide 
world over has yet been reported as being wholly converted 
to Christianity, and its people living in full and complete 
submission to the will of God. The proportion of nominal 
Christians, even in our own enlightened land, is small, and 
of these how many are really disciples of the unselfish, 
humanity-serving Christ, only God can tell. The dull rou- 
tine of our church services goes on forever, but men die in 
their sins and in their miser}^ unsought and uncared for. 
While Christians pra^^ millions upon millions of human be- 
ings go down to death and to moral degradation unsaved, and 
few Christian men or ministers seem to greatly care; at least 
no more positive and direct means than those which have 
failed over and over again, are instituted to influence men 
and to save them from this fate. If they wish to be saved, 
if they will listen to the spoken gospel and accept it, the 
doors of the church are open to them; but if they do not, it 
does not seem to greatly matter to Christian people. They 
are allowed to go their own way, unsought and well nigh 
forgotten. And with them go the young manhood of the 
race, while millions of children, blindh' following in the 



ORTHODOX HERESY. I3 

footsteps of the young men, are lost to the gentler and 
nobler influences with which a true Christianity should sur- 
round them. The never-ending round of evil influence goes 
on unchecked. The man is unsought and the child who 
follows in his footsteps is not saved. The child is lost, and 
through him, the world itself is lost. 

If our modern, duty-shirking and very comfortable theol- 
ogy is true and it is God's fault that the world is not saved, 
why should Christian men and women greatly care whether 
men die in their sins or not ? If it is God's business to save 
men let us wait until he saves them, but if he does not, we 
will still go on in our indolent, heedless way, dreaming of 
Heavenly bliss for ourselves, however little has been our 
Christian influence upon the lives of others, declaring, by 
our actions if not by words, that we are not at fault, but 
that it is the fault of an omnipotent God that the world is 
not saved ! 



14 



1896, AND THJC FIVE REDEMPTION YEARS. 




Ministers and Christian Progress. 

The ministers of the gos- 
pel are perhaps not wholly 
to blame for this lack of 
success in Christian evan- 
gelism, and yet it must be 
remembered that they are 
the natural leaders in Chris- 
tian progress, and an edu- 
cated ministry in this pro- 
gressive age of the world 
should long ere this have 
broken away from the 
shackles of tradition and 
of churchly customs, and 
have found some more 
effective method of reach- 
ing the hearts of men than by the eternal talk, talk, talk of 
modern sermonizing. If words could have saved the world 
it would have been saved centuries ago. If men could be 
reached and won b}' rehearsing the platitudes of the spoken 
gospel in their hearing some means would have been found 
ere this for compelling the last recalcitrant sinner to listen. 
But these means have signally failed to convert the world 
to Christianity. They failed in the time of Christ, the}' fail 
still more notabh* now. If all we learn from Christ's exam- 
ple and teaching is to talk about religion, even with the elo- 
quence and spiritual power of the Son of God himself, his 
mission on earth was a failure. The world will never be 
won by talk alone. The one who thinks that it will be is a 
miserably poor student of human affairs, and he is only 
wasting his breath to little purpose. If the Son of God 
could not win men by talk alone, surel}' the modern minis- 
ter, be he ever so eloquent, can hope for no greater success. 



MINISTERS AND CHRISTIAN PROGRESS. I5 

Neither will the world be won by prayer, despite the 
beautiful but indolence-breeding theology we have formula- 
ted concerning the all sufficiency of prayer and faith. God 
has made Christian men and women the ministers of his 
salvation to their fellow men, and until this plan of saving 
and redeeming humanity through human agencies, rather 
than by angelic influences, has been discarded and set 
aside, he will not take the work out of the hands of the 
church and do it himself, no matter how diligently Chris- 
tian people may pray for a miraculous world redemption. 
The faith of an earnest Christian disciple who is using 
every faculty that God has given him in an honest effort to 
reach and influence those about him, will enable him to 
remove mountains of difficulty from his path, but the faith 
of a Christian sluggard who is hoping to be carried to the 
skies upon flowery beds of ease, while the world is being 
converted by miraculous means, will not tip over a molehill. 
God cannot be made the scapegoat of our sins. The duty 
of a Christian disciple cannot be done in a prayer-meeting 
room in the intervals of shaking hands in a social way with 
congenial friends. God is not mocked by the everlasting 
flow of our words, or by a social in which the exercises are 
of a religious character and consist in prayer and in the 
telling of "experiences," not upon the battlefield, but in 
doing nothing at all. If Christian people have no better 
service than this to offer God, better far that the mouth of 
every professing Christian were sealed and the world spared 
the spectacle of a church lazily praying week in and week 
out, without a single one of their prayers being answered. 
The world is not convinced of the truth of our religion by 
such a spectacle as this. Words will not save the world, 
neither will they deceive God. 

The era of talk is at an end, whether we will it so or not. 
The era of well directed action is already here. The busi- 
ness men of the world have set the pace. If the leaders 



16 1896. AND THE FIVE REDE3IPTI0X YEARS- 

in Christian thought and action cannot keep step with it, 
the}' must stand, aside and allow some new agenc}- to be 
discovered which will save humanit}* and give to mankind 
the glorious destin}- that is in store for it. It may be largely 
a material salvation that shall grow out of the present 
broadening influences in human thought and action, if the 
church fails to accept the plain lessons of the times and 
profit by them, but for this the church itself will be largely 
to blame. It has had its opportunity, it has it even now if 
it will bestir itself and learn Christianity as the world 
already understands it, but to-morrow it ma}' be set aside 
and the progress of the world sweep past it and beyond it. 

The church is to-day an impotent church before the man}' 
world problems which confront it. It has no answer ready 
for any one of them, not even those within the limits of its 
own particular province. It is bound so firmly to its tradi- 
tions and customs that it has apparently lost the power to 
meet the changing conditions of the times or to move for- 
ward with the world about it. The old religious chestnut, 
"How shall we reach the masses of the people?'' is as far 
from a solution to-day as it was fifty years ago. The prob- 
lem is unsolved because no one cares whether it is solved 
or not. It is much easier to go on with the old, humdrum, 
last centur}" methods than to seek for new ones or to apply 
them when they are found. God will save the world in his 
own good time. Why should Christian ministers or laymen 
bother themselves to help him in the work ? 

Why should not the church learn these plain lessons from 
its past experience and from its defeat, and in these closing 
years of a misspent century enter at once and vigorously 
into a holy crusade for the real and logical salvation of man- 
kind? Why should it continue to cling so desperate!}' to its 
illogical traditions and to a theology which leaves a world in 
sin and then charges upon God the results of its own neg- 
lect? Why should it not enlist the parents in a determined 



NOT THE LETTER, BUT THE SPIRIT. l^ 

effort to save at least the children of the land from the soul- 
deadening influences which surround them ? Why should 
it not enter into the home and the social life of the people, 
and by its wise leadership and kindly counsel, show that its 
interest in humanity is not a mere proselyting interest 
which ceases when a convert has been made ? Why should 
it not make these few remaining years of the century the 
redemption years of the sad ones that are past, and close the 
century with a land redeemed and a manhood that is a glo- 
rious realization of completeness, Godward and manward, 
instead of the self-seeking, self-indulgent manhood which 
finds its types within the church, as well as upon the out- 
side ? Why should it not prove by its energy and deter- 
mination that it is the living church of a living Christ, and 
not simply the lifeless representative of a dead creed which 
has no power to stir the heart or even to greatly change the 
character? Will the church live, and living redeem the 
world, or will it die as it deserves to die, if it cannot meas- 
ure its zeal and devotion against the many moral and spirit- 
ual problems of humanity and at least try to solve them.f 
Is obedience to God and love for humanity really dead in 
the world? 



Not the Letter, but the Spirit. 

As well might a minister sit upon a fireless locomotive 
and seek to propel it and the loaded train behind it by 
blowing against the smokestack, as to hope to move the 
world by words that do not spring from the very spirit of 
action. Thought transformed into action gives us the 
keynote of success; but thought alone, and dead thought 
of dead men at that, can only lead to failure. The locomo- 
tive in which the mechanical spirit of action can quickly be 
evoked, and which can transform the iron mechanism into 
a living thing, should teach the religious world a lesson. It 



l8 1896, AND THK FIVE REDEMPTION YEARS. 

has oeen invented within the present century, and already 
it has transformed the world of commerce and of industry; 
and now, even before the century closes, the business world 
is busily engaged in harnessing the lightning to its chariot 
wheels of progress, while men stand still and wonder what 
miracle will next be wrought. The motive force of well 
directed action has moved the world, and is moving it 
again and again. There is no disheartening failure here, for 
means are carefully adapted to the ends sought for, and men 
are determined that they will succeed. The spirit of action 
has entered into men's lives and set their souls on fire, and 
this is the logical result. The world is transformed and 
made the better and the brighter because of it. 

But the church of a living Christ, unable to catch the 
spirit of the age, or to plan conquests for itself, is still in 
the wind era of its development. Because it will not think 
or act it is engaged in a task more hopeless than that of 
trying to move loaded trains by the human breath. Amid 
the transformations of a century of progress it stands 
unmoved, still seeking to convert the world to its religious 
belief with lifeless words. The words win some lifeless 
converts, it is true, but the fire of enthusiasm, the energy 
of a consecrated purpose and a determination that will not 
be conquered, is sadly lacking. The spirit of action is 
wanting, a flame has not been kindled in men's souls, and 
the words are but the reverberations of the idle wind in the 
tomb-like stillness of our lifeless hearts. Our hearts and 
souls are dead and apparently immovable. Is the church 
dead also? Can we hope for no resurrection fire that will 
enter into the Christian hosts and lead them forward to an 
immediate conquest of the world? Must we still wait hun- 
dreds and perhaps thousands of years for the world to be 
redeemed ? 

The spirit of the gospel of Jesus Christ cannot be con- 
veyed in words. That must run from heart to heart, and if 



NOT THE LETTER, BUT THE SPIRIT. I9 

the Spirit is lacking the words b}^ which we seek to convey 
it are barren nothingness, and had better have been left 
unsaid. They may reach the ears of thousands, but if they 
fail to reach the heart, and there discharge their Heaven- 
born freightage of truth and of enthusiasm, their mission 
has failed. Either the heart of the speaker or the heart of 
the listener is dead. If both hearts are dead and devoid of 
the spirit of action, if Christianity is to each but an empty 
aspiration or a society fad, barren indeed are the sounding 
words that pass between them. If they cannot stir the 
heart of the speaker himself to activit}^, how can they be 
expected to transform the world of human life and action ? 

If the spirit of active love, of unselfish devotion, and of a 
holy enthusiasm is in the hearts of Christian people as fire 
and the Heaven-born power of steam is in the modern loco- 
motive, if it has force enough to quicken the thought, and 
to impel to well considered action in behalf of their fellow 
men, it will surely reach other hearts with its message of 
God-love and of human S3'mpathy, and it cannot fail of 
having its due effect. But if hearts are dead to human 
need and to God's call to self-denying service, then our 
religion is vain, even though the emotions be greatly quick- 
ened, and earnest praj^ers for humanity's welfare arise in 
every church. If our religion is simply the froth of emo- 
tion and of aspiration, if Christian enthusiasm is expended 
in simply bombarding Heaven with senseless prayers, if we 
cannot be spurred or driven into earnest and honest service 
for God and for humanity, then the words of our religion 
are dead and barren words, and they will echo and re-echo 
from closed hearts and barricaded ears as the}^ do from 
plaster walls. The letter killeth; it is the spirit that giveth 
life. Action begets action, but sound only excites our won- 
der until we have investigated the cause, and then it is 
powerless even to arouse our fears. 

Is the active spirit of the gospel of salvation abroad in 



20 1S96, AXD THE FIVE REDEMPTION YEARS. 

our churches to-day ? Is our love for humanity a real heart 
passion that impels us to both plan and to work for human- 
it3''s welfare? Do we reall}^ love our uninteresting and un- 
fortunate fellow beings to the extent of a Christ-like self- 
denial in their behalf? Or is our interest in our fellow men 
beyond our particular denomination or clique, a mere pros- 
eh'ting interest,' a desire to see them benefited and saved 
if Heaven will only save them without trouble or expense 
to ourselves ? Are our churches realh' more than religious 
clubs where we congregate upon the Sabbath to touch 
elbows with friends and acquaintances and to listen to the 
best preaching we are able to pay for? Is not the extent 
of our love for humanity a mere denominational zeal and 
onh' an instance of a little broader selfishness than that 
which binds us to our own families or to our well loved 
friends? Are we Christians in any broad and adequate 
sense of the word, or is our Christianit}^ onh' a name, a 
fruitless aspiration, an unintentional pretense? Let the 
Christian people of the land themselves answer, and lest 
any may think that this criticism is for the church alone, 
let those who are not Christians show wherein their rela- 
tions with God and with man are more logical and consis- 
tent than those of the people of God. The hypocrisy of 
self-righteousness is more likely to be outside of the church 
than in it. The church ma}' be mistaken and blunder along 
in a dense atmosphere of an erroneous tradition; the people 
of the world, standing outside of this atmosphere and read- 
ing the Bible clearer than do Christian people themselves, 
are often willfulh' blind. 

And 3'et if our modern Christianity is no more than these 
things that have been enumerated there is no reason why 
we should ask those outside of the church to accept it. 
Their heart relations with their God and with his Son, 
Jesus Christ, are their own concern. The church has no 
part or interest in them. It has abdicated its position as a 



NOT THE LETTER, BUT THE SPIRIT. 21 

minister of salvation between God and men. But if our 
Christianity is more than these things, if we are living dis- 
ciples of a living Christ, if we are willing to sacrifice our 
selfish interests in the broad interests of humanity, if we 
really love God enough to be willing to obey him and 
actually carry the gospel of a salvation that is material and 
concrete as well as spiritual and remote, to those within the 
sphere of our influence, then it is full time that we should 
prove all this and show to the world that our mission is 
divine and that God speaks through us to needy and sinful 
men. If we cannot do this then the mission of the church 
is ended, and the sooner some more effectual means are dis- 
covered for introducing the real Chriscian spirit of brother- 
hood into the world, for equalizing the burdens of mankind, 
and for saving our children from the many temptations 
that too successfully assail them, the better it will be for us 
and for the world in which we live, but sadly fail to influence. 
We cannot forever deceive an awakening humanity with 
our empty words, or defy God and frustrate his purposes 
for mankind with our indolent pretense of Christian service. 
In proving our Christianity true and one that is adequate 
to the real needs of the world, we shall also quickly bring to 
our own communities and to the world at large the millen- 
nial radiance of a perfect social and spiritual condition of 
human life. For the millennial era of the world's history 
dawns the very day that the church of Christ asks for it in 
sincerity and is willing to accept it in all its beauty and 
grandeur. The true spirit of Christian brotherhood, the 
spirit which prompts us to think of our neighbors as we do 
of ourselves, and if they lack wisdom, or opportunity, or 
material comfort, to share with them until they shall have a 
fair if not an equal chance in the battle of life, can no more 
be confined within set limits than the sunlight of the phys- 
ical universe can be boxed up and kept within our churches. 
We are not devils incapable of reformation, but human 



22 1896, AXD THE FIVE REDEMPTION YEARS. 

beings with the well-springs of human sympathj^ alread}^ 
bubbling and surging within our hearts, waiting for the fire 
of Christian activitj^ to bring it forth. The church is blind 
that it cannot see this. The world will quickh^ recognize 
and accept our Christianitj^ when we have proven it to be a 
living realit}' and not a dry formalit}^ a dead bundle of aspir- 
ations, a hollow mocker}^ built of tinkling words. 

Will the Christian church do this ? Dare it do anj-thing 
else and still claim to be the church of a living Christ, the 
medium through which the love of God can flow into and 
redeem the hearts of men ? 

Blind Leaders of the Blind. 

We have all been blind leaders of the blind because we 
have allowed the people of past ages to do our thinking for 
us and have not even attempted to adapt our religion to the 
changing exigencies of the times, or to adopt new methods 
or customs. The tinkling words of our religion have pene- 
trated to our ears; the}^ have even stirred our emotions, but 
they have apparently not even 3'et reached our intellects or 
transformed our hearts. We have made our Bible a fetich 
to swear b}', not an inspiration to noble Christian service 
and to a conquest of the world. It has been chained as 
firmly to the traditions and the interpretations of the past 
as it ever was to the lecterns of the monasteries. We have 
taught for the spirit of the gospel of salvation simph^ the 
traditions of men; and for those who have dared to break 
awa}^ from these and to plead for a reasonable gospel, we 
have reserved the fiercest anathemas of the church. We 
have led people to the cross of an unselfish, humanit3^-serv- 
ing Christ and have there turned them adrift to learn from 
our example and from their own experience what Chris- 
tianit}' is not. The}' have become religious as we ourselves 
are religious, but they have forgotten their fellow men. They 



BI.IND LEADERS OF THE BLIND. 23 

pray for the salvation of the world and for the salvation of 
their own children; but the ver}^ streets have become uni- 
versities of sin and crime. Penitentiaries exist because 
religious people have left so very msLuy souls unsought and 
uncared for. The friendless tramp is simply a forgotten 
soul wandering up and down the world in search of a 
human refuge and finding none. The church furnaces 
might warm his body if the cellar-way were open, but cold 
indeed would be his welcome is he sought for human sym- 
pathy in the audience room of the church itself. The man- 
judged and society-condemned criminal is only a lost soul 
who bears about with him the deeper damnation of our neg- 
lect. The punishment is his but the curse is ours, and God's 
church will surely be compelled to answer in the judgment 
day for its neglect of him and of his kind. It might have 
saved him as a little child, but it would not. 

The religion of letting people alone has only given 
Satan the better chance of marshalling his cohorts and of 
keeping his ranks full. The waifs of the street, the children 
whose parents do not send them to Sabbath school, or who 
come but soon drift out again because the church is so very 
accommodating and supinely easy in its methods, only go to 
swell the ranks of those who know no God, but self, and 
who care for no salvation but that which spares them from 
some portion of their daily toil, or ministers to their self- 
indulgence. The very saloon keepers laugh in their sleeves 
at the beaten track which leads from the Sunday school 
room to the saloon, while Christian people, ignoring the 
fountains of influence and their golden opportunity to pre- 
vent the training of innocent children into drunkards, 
loudly denounce intemperance, and wonder wh}^ God does 
not destroy the traffic in drink. The neglect of the church 
feeds every hellish traffic, and leaves the soul traps of 
humanit}', the places where children and young people 
Stumble and fall, unguarded and forgotten. The world is 



24 1896, AND THE FIVE REDEMPTION YEARS. 

damned because the church of Christ is drunk with an emo- 
tional reHgion and forgets all about humanity and its duty 
to the childhood of the race. Who saves the children and 
keeps them pure saves the world; and yet the world of 
human life is lost thrice over in every century. For no one 
thinks ! 

Can we ever learn the lesson of the years, or must we 
blunder on in our selfish search for the theologian's heaven, 
while the world is left to Satan and to the laughing human 
devils who do not even fear the influence of the church? 
Is God impotent, or are his children fools? 

Is there no need for Christian reformation within the 
church? Is it the world that needs salvation, or must we 
search for the first converts of the millennial church in our 
theological colleges, our pulpits, and in our prayer-meeting 
rooms? Can the church stand before the judgment bar of 
public opinion, or even of its own conscience, and claim 
that it is not at fault, that it is fulfilling its mission even in 
the smallest particular, or that a tithe of its duty is being 
done? Is there really a church that is worthy of the name 
of Christ in the world to-day? Is there a single earnest 
Christian disciple whose soul is really on fire with the 
enthusiasm of the love of Christ for humanit}-, and whg is 
ready to move forward to the conquest of the world ? 

Let no one think that Christianity is being assailed in 
these plain words. Religious systems may be but Chris- 
tianity is not. There is a God in Heaven, and the Revela- 
tion he has given to man is true in every particular. But 
he w^ho reads the words alone and proceeds to build his 
theology upon them, who scissors the Word of God until it 
suits his notion and who discards or ignores whatever con- 
flicts w^ith the man-wrought structure he has erected, misses 
entirely the spirit of God's revelation to men, and the great 
underlying truths that teach God-love and an honest human 
sympathy. The Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of 



BLIND I.EADERS OF THE BLIND. 2$ 

man is a great and living truth, and not a tinkling harmony 
of words. lyike many another truth of Scripture it is a dual 
truth that is one and inseparable. We prove our love for 
God by our love for humanity, and we can prove it in no 
other way. Professions count for nothing when we stand 
before God or before the world and are called upon to prove 
that our love and faith is not a vain pretense. The spirit of 
the love of Christ cannot be formulated into words. 

When God asks for our service he does not throw human- 
ity overboard and take church attendance and our empty 
praises, as some vain, flattery-filled human prince might do, 
in the place of honest work for the redemption of mankind. 
The one who sits in his cushioned pew and mourns over his 
fallen brother while that brother goes down to Hell unsought 
and unremembered except in prayer, the one who, while he 
praises God, leaves the pitfalls into which his brother has 
fallen unguarded in the interest of the children who may 
innocently follow in that brother's footsteps, is not a Chris- 
tian, and all the church records in Christendom cannot make 
him one. He is blindly at fault, perhaps, he is following 
standards of thought and action which he supposes are cor- 
rect since they bear the seal of the church and the earmarks 
of established usage, but he is clearly not a faithful disciple 
of the lowly Nazarene who went about the highways and 
byways of Judea and Galilee, seeking lost men and teaching 
them the principles of a religion that needed no excuse or 
apology. True Christianity is more than a sentiment, it is 
more than a barren aspiration, it is far more than any pro- 
fession. It is Christ-like love and the enthusiasm of the 
crusaders expressed in well considered and well directed 
action, and not in empty sounding words. Words? What 
are words when a world is to be redeemed ? 



26 1896, AND THK FIVK REDEMPTION YEARS. 

A Modified Bible. 

Anj^one, be he theologian or fanatic, can make a Bible to 
his notion by the aid of a paste pot and a pair of scissors, 
but after all his Bible will be a mere book of words. The 
revelation of God is not in the printed words gathered here 
and there to make a dogma or an excuse for inaction, but 
in the spirit of truth which the words contain, and, perhaps, 
because they are only words, too dimly reveal. We cannot 
clip and pare the Word of God and still leave it true, and 
yet this is what people do when they choose a portion of 
the Bible to build their theology upon and ignore the rest. 
If what St. Paul says is true the teachings of St. James and 
St. John are equally true, and these declare that honest 
service and a manifest love for one's fellow men are essen- 
tial elements of the Christian profession. 

A dead faith is of no more value to a Christian soldier 
upon the battleground of humanity's future, than would be 
a dead horse to a crusader in a journey to the Holy Land. 
If either should attempt to carry the dead carcass about 
with him upon his shoulders, failure in his purposes would 
be the sure result. A dead faith does not and cannot 
accomplish anything in Christian evangelism, and it is 
strange that people should persist in believing in it in spite 
of the clear teaching of the Bible, and of human experience 
as well. A man is saved by faith, but the world is not, nor 
can it be until God changes his plan of redemption and 
makes a new world. 

Whatever the miracles of the past may have been we 
have no Aladdin-like reformations at the present day. The 
power of Heaven in the spiritual world, like that in the 
physical universe, is clear and pronounced, and there is no 
true Christian disciple but who must recognize it, but still 
the province of human action is not invaded or man's duty 
abrogated. The farmer plows his field and plants his seed. 



A MODIFIED BIBLK. 2/ 

and God's rain and sunshine and the wonderful develop- 
ment of the seed itself, give him a harvest; but God does 
not plow fields or tend the crop for lazy farmers, neither 
does he relieve Christian disciples from the need of definite 
thought and diligent service in the work of world redemp- 
tion. The idea that this work can be shifted upon God's 
shoulders by a little lazy prayer is the darkest heresy that 
ever stained the history of the church or deadened its 
activities. It is not God's fault that the world is not 
saved, but the fault of those who preach and pray when 
sharp, decisive, persistent action is demanded. A church 
interminably upon its knees, while the cohorts of sin are 
charging about it, stealing the young men from the Sunday 
schools and the children from Christian homes, is a farce, 
all the theologians to the contrary notwithstanding. While 
the church prays the world is lost. 

This is the new interpretation of theology that the world 
needs. Let the libraries of the dead past be burned if they 
cannot teach a theology that is adapted to the living pres- 
ent and that can redeem the world. Let those be denounced 
as heretics who declare that it is God's will and purpose 
that the world shall remain in sin for another century, or 
even for another year. Man damns his fellow men by his 
heartlessness and his neglect. It is not God who crushes 
out the soul life of the innocent child and leaves it to grow 
up a devil. God has given and will give to men the spirit- 
ual power of gods if they will but use it; but they, in their 
selfish greed, love self better than God, and their own pride 
and ease better than they love their fellow men or the wel- 
fare of the race. They even build palaces to worship in, 
while innocent children are left in squalor and neglect to 
grow up devils and criminals, or to fulfill whatever destiny 
Satan chooses for them. 

We prove our belief in God by serving him ; we test the 
value of the salvation we offer to others in a future world 



-28 1896, AND THE FIVE REDEMPTIOX YEARS. 

b}' its evident effects upon our ovn lives in this one. 
The idea of a Heaven where men stand around and sing 
praises has served too long as a type of the Christian life. 
Christianity is not a negative grace or a social fad, but a 
positive force; and, like eyery other force in the world, it 
has its mission to accomplish. The religion of "being 
good," and thus standing as a signboard upon the road to 
Heaven, belongs to the dead past. This age of progress, 
when miracles are wrought b}^ human wit and energy, has 
no use for a signboard Christianit3^ Mankind does not 
need a new religion, but the old one of Christ, and Paul, 
and James, and John rejuvenated, and with this the world 
can be redeemed. 

The Bible ma}- be made a glorious revelation from Heaven 
or a fetich with which to damn men's souls. The spirit of 
the gospel truth is far greater than the words that contain 
it, or the power of expression of those who wrote it. The 
retranslation of Genesis under the light of reason and the 
researches of modern science has redeemed the Bible from 
being a wizard book and has given us a beautiful and a con- 
sistent conception of God as a Creator and as the Ruler of 
the Universe. A retranslation of the remainder under the 
light of common sense and the plain teaching of human 
experience, will teach us the beautiful consistency of God's 
revelation to man, and of his plan for human redemption. 
We are not converted and turned to God by the power of 
angels, but by the kindl}^ influence and loving s^^mpathy of 
our fellow men. Humanit}^ helping humanit}' upward and 
onward by the power of Christian love and S3'mpathy, is a 
grander and more beautiful conception of God's dealings 
with men than 3.nj miraculous, wholesale redemption that 
the theologians have 3-et given us. This is the true Chris- 
tianit}'. This is the effective preaching of the gospel that 
is to lead to the redemption of the whole world. This is 
the living, pulsing spirit of sympathy that binds us together 



CONCERNING THB MASSES. 29 

in one common brotherhood, and, through the God-man, 
unites us with our Father, God. 

Can a gospel of words, and prayers that are forgotten as 
soon as uttered, redeem the world? Will men longer be- 
lieve a mockery like this ? 

Concerning the Masses. 

There are no masses of the people. Each individual man 
stands upon the apex of the world, with the zenith directly 
over him, and no human power can intervene between him- 
self and God unless he wills it. Bach man must be saved 
alone. 

It is unfortunate that the church should ever have gotten 
the idea that men are masses, to be saved, if they are saved 
at all, by miraculous outpourings of Heavenly grace. That 
God does not save by wholesale methods is evident enough 
to any thoughtful observer, and yet the church will not 
amend either its practice or its theology. It is so much 
easier, apparently, to preach and pray a mass of mne into 
the kingdom of grace, than it is to go out after the individ- 
ual man and win him by a kindly sympathy that convinces 
him that there is really such a thing as Christianity in the 
world 1 

Conversion, in the sense of turning men to the truth and 
leading them to God, is a hand to hand, a heart to heart 
work, and upon this individual work the church must enter 
if it hopes to redeem itself for its centuries of neglect and 
of thoughtless indifference. Each soul has its own sur- 
roundings of doubt, of indifference, of the feeling of neglect 
by Christian people, and each of these must be penetrated 
in special ways. Every revivalist knows how difficult it is 
to get the stranger from the seats under the gallery to the 
mourner's bench, and it is because the church is blindly 
feeling for him with a pair of religious tongs. The tongs 



30 1896, AXD THE FIVE REDEMPTION YEARS. 

with which we fish for the souls of men must be cast aside. 
They don't pay. And if the rehgious twang with which we 
converse about our rehgion, goes with them, it will be all 
the better. They both belong to the oratorical era of evan- 
gelism, an era that is happil}^ passing away, although the 
church has not yet learned how futile Christian orator}^ is 
as a means of a real salvation. The electrical era, when 
men shall stand elbow to elbow and salvation shall run from 
heart to heart b}' closed circuits, will be much better. Then 
the masses of the people will be reached and saved because 
the wire of human love and sympath}- will be carried to 
every heart, and the individual man will be recognized as 
our brother, no matter how poor his station or uncouth his 
waj'S. 

Some fifteen 3'ears ago a young man, having studied long 
and diligentl}^ upon that theological conundrum, "How 
shall we reach the masses of the people?" concluded that 
the printing press was the best possible modern pulpit, and 
the patient letter carriers were the best possible evangelists 
of salvation to the homes of the people. But when the 
3'oung man, with more zeal than experience, attempted to 
carry this idea into practice and provide the church with 
the means of "carr3'ing the gospel into every home," he 
quickly discovered that the question was only a tinkling 
sj^mphon}' of words and an excuse for not reaching the 
"masses," or even attempting to reach them. When the 
young man's capital was spent the project was necessarily 
abandoned, but one thing was accomplished; the theologi- 
cal chestnut was retired from duty for a season, at least, 
and few have now the temerity to propound it. The very 
evident neglect of the masses bj' the church calls for no 
apology and has none. 

Perhaps these words will meet with no greater response 
from Christian people than did the 3'oung man's ill-starred 
enthusiasm. Perhaps the time, these closing years of a 



CONCERNING THK MASSES. 3 1 

century great in everything but in moral advancement, is 
not yet ripe for a decided advance along all moral and 
Christian lines. Perhaps another century, another millen- 
nium, must pass before the church of Christ can be awak- 
ened from its lethargy and persuaded to really win the world 
for its Master, as it can easily do whenever it finds a worthy 
plea and is really determined that it shall be done. Perhaps 
billions upon billions of men must yet be lost simply because 
the Christian church is too indolent to re-learn the princi- 
ples of its religion and to carry the gospel of a real salvation 
to them or to their ancestors, utterly unmindful of the fact 
that for every soul death it is directly responsible because 
it has failed to obey the clearly expressed commands of God. 

Perhaps the church, by a religion that has no adequate 
effect upon the world, and does not make Christians ot its 
own disciples, even, may yet convince the world that there is 
no God, and no real need of any salvation whatever. . Perhaps 
mankind has really no destiny but to rot and to fertilize the 
earth that bore it. Perhaps these spirits of ours are only 
the chance beatings of so much brain tissue, and whether 
we live or die, or become saints or demons, does not matter. 
If all must die and rot, why should not men trample upon 
and destroy their fellow men, since the recruiting processes 
of nature will thereby be so much the sooner accomplished? 
If self is really God, why not leave men to make their own 
Heaven, or enjoy their own Hell, as pleases them best? 
Why should man interfere within the realm of his fellow- 
god? 

But if there is a God in Heaven and a soul in man, if Rev- 
elation is true, and the Christian church is God's minister 
of salvation to a selfish and a misguided humanit}^ if man's 
destiny is to serve his fellow man and to live forever, then 
let the church of a living God put forever behind it the 
record of indolence and of indifference it has hitherto made, 
and let it prove its authority and its right to live by actually 



32 1896, AND the: FIVK redemption YEARS. 

accomplishing the mission which has been entrusted to it. 
Let it show to the w^orld that it is not simply an aggrega- 
tion of religious clubs, existing for selfish and social pur- 
poses, principally; and that its ministers are not preaching 
the gospel because they are well paid for it. Let it enter 
•at once into the home and heart life of the people, as it may 
if it will use tact and go with evident blessings in its hands. 
Let it claim and hold the child life of the race for God, and 
for its own better destiny. Let it be true to itself and to 
humanity by being true to its duty and to its God. Let it 
even stop its preaching, if that will arouse its membership 
to action, and teach them that human sympathy and a 
divine salvation does not run from mouth to mouth. Let it 
■even stop its praying, since it has no warrant to pray until 
its offering of honest service has been brought to God's 
altar of sacrifice and accepted. Let it even close its costly 
churches, which the masses will not enter, until it has gone 
out and found the masses and brought them with them to 
the house of God. The mission of the Christian is not to 
get to Heaven the easiest way he can ; but, forgetting self, 
find others and send them Heavenward. 

Are These Things True? 

No man is stronger than the truth. Error may be per- 
petuated in thoughtless minds by the jugglery of words^ but 
truth is its own expounder and witness. If the church of 
God is assailed without warrant; if another thousand years 
must necessarily pass before our next-door neighbors can 
be persuaded to listen to the truth and to accept it ; if souls 
are damned simply because God wills it and fails to save 
them; if these words are but the vaporings of a termagant, 
then all that has been said in these pages falls to the ground 
and will have no beneficent effect. The hour of world re- 
demption has not yet come. But if these words are true ; 



ARK THESE THINGS TRUE? 33 

if the church of God has forgotten its mission and has failed 
to learn that human help and sympathy is a part of the 
religion it professes; if its sermons and prayers are only 
words without the spirit of love or the fire of enthusiasm ; 
if the present world is being lost because the church will 
not think or enter actively upon the work of human re- 
demption, then these words will stand however fiercely they 
may be assailed. They are not soft words, they have not 
been whispered in the churches lest the world should be 
led to imagine that the church is not infallible. Whoever 
strikes for the conscience and the heart of humanity must 
use strong words and loud ones. Whoever combats error 
must make it known to the whole world and not to a chosen 
few. The great heart of humanity is not dead. It loves 
the truth and will uphold it, and it can be moved in behalf 
of those who are in darkness or who suffer. And it will 
respond to the touch of those who appeal to it in behalf of 
humanity with the inspiration of living truth, however dull 
it may be to the patter of lifeless words. The world may 
yet be saved and the brotherhood of man can be made a 
glorious reality. But who shall lead in this work if not 
those who stand before the world as the called ministers of 
-salvation and the evangelists of God's love and sympathy to 
a needy race? While men suffer and die is God only anx- 
ious that we shall bring him our fulsome praise and a devo- 
tion of barren words ? Is this the only Christianity we can 
teach to men ? 



book: II. 
A CENTURY TO BE REDEEMED. 
What World Redemption Means. 

If the whole civilized world were converted to our mod- 
ern Christianity^ to-morrow, it would still be very far from 
being saved in any adequate sense of the word. A professed 
salvation is one thing, an actual realization of the idea 
of a Christian brotherhood, where the weak are the wards 
of the strong and the general good is the first thought of 
all, is another and a very different matter. We ma}' all be 
converted in a theological sense and each traveling upon 
our happ}' wa}- to Heaven, we may be charitable and kind, 
and also condescending to our weaker brethren and anxious 
that God shall give them as many blessings as we ourselves 
enjoy, and yet our Christianity ma}' be a very selfish one, 
and an intense individualism may realh' separate us from 
those about us. "What is mine is mine alone!" is to-day 
the mark and motto of the fierce individualism of the race, 
and it is the law^ even for Christian people. The}- may 
even give a tenth to religious and charitable purposes and 
still cling so tenaciously to the remainder and use it so sel- 
fishly, as to preclude the idea that they are really consistent 
followers of the unselfish Nazarene who did not even enjoy 
the privilege of living in a house with all the modern con- 
veniences. They are Christians, perhaps, and yet selfish- 
ness and a love of the world and of display, holds a very 
large place in their hearts. 

That the progress of the world up to this present time is 
the product of an intense individualism, cannot for a 



WHAT WORLD REDEMPTION MEANS. 



35 



moment be doubted. In this fierce contest of millions with 
each other the juggernaut car of progress has rolled over 
many a soul, and yet the ultimate result has been a benefi- 
cent one. It will probably be a sad day for the world 
when, either through the unguided drift of events or by the 
dogmatic action of masses of men, individualism wholly 
gives away before communism. And 3^et no thoughtful 
man can doubt but that the time has come when the two 
apparently antagonistic ideas, "Every man for himself," and 
" Every man for his brother," may be safely welded together 
and made the basis of a world religion that is certainly as 
old as St. Paul, since he very clearly enunciates it in his 
epistle to the Galatiatis. 










36 1896, i^ND THE FIVE REDEMPTION YEARS. 

We are individuals, not masses, and each of us stands 
alone and face to face with God. In the supreme moments 
of our lives we may even forget there is a w^orld of human- 
ity about us of which we are a component part. God, the 
Ego, and the material universe, are the sublime facts that 
force themselves upon our consciousness. Save God and 
the universe only, the Kgo is supreme and the world is his. 
But with this supreme consciousness of the importance of 
the individual man to himself and possibl}-^ to his God or to 
the world, is the equally significant thought that in the 
aggregate Kgo we count but one. A thousand million 
others stand in this same relation to God, and God himself 
has made us one famil}-. Whoever has within him the 
breath of God, that acme of existence we call the soul, is 
our brother, and to discard this human relationship is to 
defy God, who commands us to love our neighbors as our- 
selves. We stand alone as individuals, but we stand arm 
to arm and heart to heart as children of one common 
Father. If we reject the claim of human brotherhood and 
live for selfish interests alone, we also give over our claim 
upon the Fatherhood of God. God and the world has given 
us what we have ; if we will not return some portion of it 
in honest world service when it is so clearly and so reason- 
ably demanded of us, we are not men, but animals in whom 
the instincts of humanit}^ have died out. 

If we love God we will love humanity, and if we love 
humanity we will find ways of expressing that love in tang- 
ible ways, even though we do not sell our goods and divide 
with the poor. If, after the manner of the rich young man 
w^hom Christ tested, we cling to the goods, there is the more 
reason why we should meet the supreme test of our Chris- 
tianity in other ways. The test must come in some way or 
other, for God requires it of us as the price of our salvation. 
And the test comes to the church, just as surely as it does 
to the individual Christian. It must prove its right to the 



WHAT WORIvD RKDEMPTION MEANS. 37 

name it bears and show to mankind that it is at least hon- 
estly trying to fulfill its mission to the world; and neither 
an individual, if he has the spirit of manhood within him, 
nor a church, if it is ruled by the spirit of obedience, should 
wish to ignore their relations to humanity or to shirk their 
duty in the smallest particular. 

Not only must the church accept this exalted idea of its 
dutj^ but it must make the idea of the real brotherhood of 
humanity an established fact before the world can be re- 
deemed and become ready to enter upon the glorious destiny 
that is surely in store for it. When a man's moral and 
material needs shall measure the contribution to which he 
is entitled from the world, and this measure shall be given 
to him pressed down and running over in return for his 
honest service, when each individual man, instead of being 
neglected or forgotten like a tramp or a homeless dog, shall 
be helped to stand in the lull glory of his manhood with his 
fellows, equal with them in consideration if not in wealth 
or ability, then the work of the church militant will have 
been done and it may enter at once upon its reign as a 
church triumphant. For the world will be the church ! 

Of such men, redeemed from the intense selfishness and 
greed of humanity and taught the blessed significance of a 
love which is at once human and divine, is the kingdom of 
Heaven. And whether on earth or in Heaven their value 
and their reward is the same. The world needs them to-day 
far more than it ever needed them before, and far more than 
Heaven will need them when their reward is complete, for 
to-day is surely the dawn of the millennial era of happiness 
for mankind, if man will only have it so. 

Are there many such men who can be depended upon in 
any emergency, in the world to-day? Do our churches 
teach a religion like this? Shall it be said that, being 
devils, we cannot attain to such a standard of manhood, no, 
not for a thousand years? Or is the millennium of our 



38 1896, AXD THE FIVE REDEMPTIOX YEARS. 

hopes easih- attainable whenever we really wish for it and 
are ready to enter into its possession in the spirit of those 
who love God supremely, and humanity- as themselves? 
The question comes to each one of us : Believing this, shall 
we help to make it true ? 

One Single Soul and a World to Save. 

The budding intelligence in the child's mind is not more 
pronounced than the budding desire in the mother's heart 
that her child shall have the very best destim' possible, and 
that it shall be kept pure and true. Yen.' possibly she 
realizes her inability to give her child all that she would 
gladly will for it if she had the power, and she would 
gladly welcome the help of those who are wiser and stronger 
than herself. For the time her child is ever^-thing to her, 
and she both needs help and is willing to receive it. how- 
ever indifferent to it she may become in future j'ears. 

This is the golden opportunity of the church. The child 
iS theirs if Christian people would only claim it and hold it 
against the world, and against the temptations of the world. 
AVith the aggregated wisdom of an army of mothers, they 
coidd teach that anxious one how to train her child for its 
own best welfare and the welfare of the race. With the 
loving sympathy of those who know onh* too well a child's 
cemptations they could throw around that one child a wall 
of care that no devil or demon could penetrate. With 
ever\' child corraled with a living and a loving fence of care, 
with everv father enlisted in this work of saving his own 
child and the children of his neighbors from the effect of 
his own foolish vices, there would be few who could or 
would tempt it into a life of sin. 

Where are Christian people in these hours of opportunity 
and of peril? Safely ensconced within their places of wor- 
ship, mourning over the sins of those who reject God's 
commands, and wondering why God does not see fit to save 



ONK SINGLE SOUL AND A WORLD TO SAVE. 39 

the world! Perhaps the child attends Sabbath school for 
one short hour each week; perhaps it does not. But 
whether it does or not, it is forgotten when the Sabbath 
school is dismissed, and the child is sent out to endure a 
full week of temptation, even in its own neglected home. 
The church forgets the child ; it forgets its duty ; it forgets 
its opportunity, and out of twenty young men, nineteen are 
not saved ! 

The father loves his prattling child. Whoever says that 
he does not has never known a father's love. He damns 
him by his example simply because the connection between 
a father's selfish habits and the character of the child has 
never been made clear to his understanding. The second 
commandment may have been drilled into his intellect, but 
he has never been effectually taught its deep and terrible 
significance upon the children who honor him in their way, 
and follow in his footsteps. As his own father passed the 
curse of habit and indifference to him, so he passes it on 
to those whom he loves, but whom he heedlessly destroys 
by his influence and his example. 

Where is the arm that shall be reached out to save the 
child, the hand that shall restrain the father's guilt ? They 
are in our churches impotently raised to Heaven in prayer 
for a miraculous salvation, not even for this one child, but 
for the masses of the people ! The prayers go on intermin- 
ahly, but the interest of the father is not enlisted, and the 
child is lost. And, by and by, the church awakens to the 
fact that evil is rampant in the world, and stands by the 
very church doors to steal the souls of those who enter and 
come out. Not even the homes of Christian people are 
sure refuges for the children who dwell therein, and who 
are compelled to run the gauntlet of derision or of tempta- 
tion between them and the church. Instead of the church 
going into all the world and preaching the gospel effectively 
to every creature, it is corraled by Satan within its very 



40 1S96, A^'D THE FIVE REDEMPTIOX YEARS. 

meeting houses, and it has not yet had wit enough to even 
discover this fact. Whoever seeks to win the world by 
doing nothing, is won himself by Satan, but does not know it. 

Is this the only inspiration our Bible gives to Christian 
men? Then it is a man-clipped and a pasted Bible and a 
book of Hes. The Heavenly- inspiration is cut out. and all 
that is left is the dead form of a dead religion, which is of 
ver>' little use to men. 

Three times within the centun.* has a new generation been 
born upon the earth, and three times, nay a thousand times 
three times, has the opportunity been given to the church 
to save the world by simply keeping the children pure, and 
holding them firmly for Christ, but each time the opportun- 
itj' has been cast aside. The droning hum of our Sunday 
schools has arisen for one short hour each week, but the 
children have not been saved. Satan and the world has 
gotten the children, or the most of them, and the saloons, 
fed by the growing manhood of the race, still continue to 
flourish. The church gets little or nothing that it did not 
have before, not even a little rich experience that might 
sen'e it upon future occasions of a similar nature. It has 
not even learned that the saloon can easily be destro^-ed by 
dn.-ing up its custom, and it still continues to murder the 
poor saloon keeper with its cruel words and to wonder 
when God will smite him and destroy his business, with his 
avenging arm. 

The world can never be won by wholesale methods. Each 
individual soul must be found and saved by itself alone. 
When the church heedlessly allows the children, and espe- 
cially the \-oung men, to slip bej'ond its influence and to go 
out into the world unsaved and with hearts disgusted with 
religion and hardened to the truth, it is onlv courting final 
disaster. The world is not to be won in any such heedless, 
negligent way. Xo earthly master would be satisfied with 
such slipshod work as the church is tr}-ing to palm ofi" upon 



THE REDEMPTION OF A COMMUNITY. 4I 

God to-day as the full measure of its Christian service. Why- 
should Christian people think that God is less exacting, and 
that he is pleased with worship when he demands service 
and service only ? 

What man in all the church is done with vain pretense, 
and remembering what God has done for him, is ready to 
return to God the full measure of earnest service? Who 
enlists for God and for humanity, and is ready now for the 
spiritual conquest of the world ? 

The Redemption of a Community. 

The evangelization of a community is a simple problem. 
It is a question of definite work and the adoption of com- 
mon sense methods, not of faith and exhortation. There is 
no theological dogma more firmly established by argument 
and a reference to separate texts of Scripture, than is the 
simple fact, well tested by experience, that God will not 
answer the prayers of a lazy church or of a lazy Christian. 
For this reason the lazy church or lazy Christian should 
stop praying for a little season and try the saving power of 
a little unselfish Christian work. When they have learned 
the clear distinction between prayer and service, then let 
them learn to pray. 

It is just as clearly proven by experience that it requires 
something more than exhortation to get neglected children 
into the Sunday school and keep them there, and to make 
sincere Christian men and women of them, or of the larger 
sinners who come within the parish bounds of any church. 
For this reason exhortation should be laid aside for a season 
and the power of well directed work and example tried in 
its stead. Whatever the power of prayer and of exhortation 
may be, it is folly to suppose that they constitute the whole 
of the duty of the Christian, or even of a Christian minister. 
It is only another example of the absurdity of learning our 
religion in the schools alone, and of trying to impart it by 



42 1896, AND THE FIVE REDEMPTIOX YEARS. 

word of mouth. It takes wit and energy to accomplish 
anything in this world, and the work of turning a wayward 
soul from its selfish interests and its forgetfulness and lead- 
ing it to God, is no exception to the rule. The enginery 
of Heaven is at the service of those who have done their 
full duty toward God and toward man, but it is not at the 
beck and call of those who would shift their duties upon 
God's shoulders and make him their hired servant. Will 
the church ever learn this clear distinction between faith 
and lazy indifference, between the trust of a Christian sol- 
dier in the face of the enem}* and the happ^^-go-luck}^ indo- 
lence of the camp follower? Or is this doctrine of the sig- 
nificance and absolute necessity of Christian service too 
hard for it to master and accept? 

For those who are willing to leave the blunders and defi- 
ciencies of the past forever behind them, and who for the 
future are determined to do their full duty toward both God 
and man, a carefull}^ considered plan of campaign is the first 
thing demanded, and the idea that Heaven wdll furnish this, 
and also see that it is carried into execution, is another 
comfortable doctrine that experience explodes. Heaven 
has furnished brains to Christian men and women, just as it 
has furnished them to business men and inventors, and it is 
clearly intended that they shall use them in their Christian 
work, as they do in their e very-day strife for the material 
blessings of life. The Scriptural doctrine of inspiration was 
never intended for people who will neither think nor act no 
matter how clearly their duty has been pointed out to them. 
It is for Christian disciples, and for them alone. 

With a common-sense plan of campaign and a genuine, 
unselfish, active Christianity to convert people to, with a 
determination that every soul shall be reached by some 
definite Christian influence, and that no child shall be 
allowed to go down to death unsought, or to drift beyond 
the care and solicitude of the church, and success, even as a 



THE REDEMPTION OF A COMMUNITY. 43 

human undertaking, is only a question of work and of per- 
sistence. With the power of Heaven and of a holy enthu- 
siasm superadded to this, the miracle of world redemption 
could easily be accomplished. 

The idea that because a dead church, one that is waiting 
for the fire and the whirlwind of God's wrath to spur it into 
action, has taken two thousand years to convert the world 
and has hardly commenced the work as yet, a thousand 
years or more must elapse and countless generations be lost 
before the work can be completed, is arrant nonsense. If 
one year is not enough in which to redeem our American 
world and make its example the forerunner of peace and 
happiness to the whole earth, surely five would be. It takes 
but a moment of time for a man to face eternity and become 
subject to his God, and in this, matter men do not need to 
wait their turn. Let those who cry, "T<he time is too short; 
we are all devils and will not be converted," stand aside and 
see what miracles God can accomplish through Christian 
men and women when these are subject to his revealed will 
and really anxious to accomplish it. The belief that God is 
not yet ready for the world to be saved and that generations 
must go down to eternal death while Christians still con- 
tinue to preach aimlessly and pray with little faith, is the 
rankest heresy that Satan ever invented and imposed upon 
a confiding church. 

Will the church stand still and continue to stammer its 
faithless prayers and deliver its homilies upon religion, or 
will it enter at once upon the work of saving souls from 
death and thereby redeem a world from sin ? It is not a 
question of doctrine, of faith, or of conformity to the tradi- 
tions of the church, but of actually accomplishing the work 
that has been entrusted to it. Upon what possible plea 
that does not charge God with indifference to the salvation 
of his creatures can the work be postponed a single day or 
a single hour? 



44 l^gb, AND THE FIVE REDEMPTION YEARS. 

The exactions of duty are always sharp and imperative 
and cannot be postponed without disgrace The choice be- 
tween the barren past and the better future lies sharp and 
clear before us. There can be no possible gain in farther 
delay, but, instead, we know that there will be irreparable 
loss. If we can find no inspiration for the work in the 
Bible or in human need, Heaven will certainly not answer 
our heartless prayers for more. Will the church, having 
obtained some faint conception of the truth, act upon it, or 
will it still continue to wait, not for the inspiration of 
Heaven, but for its wrath? 

Forward, or the Retreat. 

In the closing years of this most remarkable of all the 
centuries, the church is on trial before mankind as it never 
was before. In the dark ages of the world, a church that 
would not do its duty or improve its opportunities, could 
pass without serious criticism. But that time is forever 
past, and it is well that it is past. When the tension of 
human thought and energy is at its utmost, when each year 
marks a new era and decades take the place of centuries, 
neither inaction or w^eakness in an organization that should 
be the most active and the strongest of all should be toler- 
ated for a moment. And, in its self-complacenc}', for the 
church to fight off criticism and to surround itself with an 
atmosphere of infallibility and conceit, is one of the greatest 
follies that it could be guilty of 

Indeed the church of Christ is to-day on trial for its ver}^ 
life, and neither a Christianity that is a blind pretense, or a 
church that wilfully and persistently shirks its duty, can 
hope to live. To-day it receives the polite toleration of the 
world at large. It is doing no harm, and it is evidently 
doing some good, although vastly less than the opportuni- 
ties before it demand. To-morrow, if it does not bestir 
itself, and seek to actually fulfill its mission in the world, it 



FORWARD, OR THE RETREAT. 45 

may merit only the world's indifference and contempt. The 
clanging bells of time that usher in a new century will 
mark a balancing of human accounts that will be stricter 
and more searching than ever before. In the changing 
standards of human life and action, the old and the ineffec- 
tual is rapidly being cast aside, and only the best and truest 
can hope to exist. In the business world the machinery of 
yesterday is antiquated to-day, and to-morrow it will be 
worthless, not because it was not excellent machinery in its 
time, but because it is not the best and thoroughly up to 
date. The same thing is true in almost ever)^ department of 
human activity. And yet there are those in the religious 
world who, while they recognize the many failings and 
shortcomings of the church, seem to think that it should be 
humored and apologized for, and not asked to move up to 
the highest standards of efficiency, simply because it is the 
church, and is supposed to be above criticism. The cen- 
turies pass and the work of the church is not done, and yet 
it wdll not admit that it is in any sense to blame. It is 
God's fault that the world is not saved ! 

Christ evidently did not imagine that his disciples w^ould 
take twenty centuries to convert the world and make such 
a miserably poor job of it in the end as we seem to have 
done thus far. Unless we can do better in the remaining 
five years of the present century, unless we can redeem our 
own land and thus pave the way for a speedy moral redemp- 
tion of the whole w^orld, it were better that we frankly 
acknowledge our failure and seek for the organization of 
some more effectual means of saving humanity from its 
miseries, if not from its sins. Why should w^e stand in the 
way of human progress if we are really unwilling to help it 
forward? Why should we claim to be the disciples of 
Christ if we will not do the work that Christ entrusted to 
his church? 

I^et it never be said that the twentieth century after 



46 1896, AND THE FIVE REDEMPTION YEARS. 

Christ is likely to dawn upon a world in which there is not 
one single country redeemed and subject. to God's will, and 
upon a church that is still lifeless and apparently beyond 
redemption. There is certainly enough moral sentiment in 
our progressive land to save us from this fate, if it is 
aroused and well directed. We are not heathen because we 
do not really care for our fellow men. We are not savages, 
sucking the life-blood from our less fortunate and perhaps 
sill}^ fellow beings that we ma}^ ourselves live in a selfish 
luxury, simply because we are incapable of human feeling. 
It is because the church, which we have been depending 
upon to save the w^orld and to bring us to better wa^'s of 
thinking and to higher standards of righteousness, has 
been vainly praying for a miraculous w^orld redemption, 
rather than one that is to be brought about by well planned 
human agencies. Those who should have been active 
Christian soldiers, bravely fighting the battles of humanity 
and winning them in the name of Christ, have been dwell- 
ing in camps and seldom venturing outside the walls of 
their comfortable churches. It has been a warfare of empty 
words, which echo back upon the speakers from deaf ears, 
as they do from plaster w-alls. And the ceiling bounds 
their power w4th God, as the walls do their influence upon 
humanity. 

The Redemption Years. 

The time will soon come when the church, if it w^ill not 
seek out new ways for getting into the home and the heart 
life of the people and turning them to righteousness both 
toward God and toward man, will become a dishonored and 
a discredited church and humanity will be compelled to 
blindly grope for some more effective means for redeeming 
and uplifting itself, and for obtaining some just conception 
of the God who created it and is still guiding its destinies. 
Five 3^ears of the present century remain in which the 



THB rede;mption years. 47 

church may prove its mission to the world and its willing- 
ness to fulfill it. If it still fails, what reason is there that it 
should ask for another century in which to show its incom- 
petency for the work entrusted to it ? With nineteen cen- 
turies well nigh wasted, what reason have we for believing 
that the twentieth would not be wasted also ? 

The church can save the world if it will — nothing is more 
certain than that — it could have saved it in any one of the 
centuries of the past if it had been true to itself and to its 
trust. It can readily save this glorious American world of 
ours in the few short years of the century that is still left to 
us, if it will only go about the work with a determination 
that will take no denial. Our God is not dead or sleeping, 
or utterly indifferent to the salvation of his people. Neither 
is there any one in any community who is so base that he 
cannot be reached within five years' time with some definite 
and effectual Christian influence, if the church will really 
seek for him and for some means of touching his heart. 
Religious homilies will not do. They amount to little or 
nothing as a world-regenerating force. But if the church 
refuses to seek for these opportunities or to improve them 
when they are found ; if it declares that it has nothing to 
do but to preach and to pray, and leave men to go down to 
death unsaved either from the power of Satan or of human 
injustice, if it persists in claiming that it is God's business 
to save the world at its behest, and that it is not at fault, 
then let it be set aside and new means be found for bringing 
the gospel of God-love and an honest human brotherhood 
to mankind. 

Truth and righteousness are not dead in the world. The 
cause of humanity still lives and human thought can be 
quickened into a glorious enthusiasm for humanity's welfare, 
even though the heavenly appointed champions of human- 
ity's cause may be recreant to their duty. By the power 
of a living God and the ability and wisdom he will give to 



48 1896, AND THE FIVE REDEMPTION YEARS. 

those who may lead in this work, the cause of human jus- 
tice, or human kindliness, and of an honest heart allegiance 
to our Heavenly Father, will move forward until the world 
itself shall be redeemed and saved. The church, by refus- 
ing the oflSce of leadership in this work, and by a too close 
allegiance to past traditions, may hinder the work, but it 
cannot stop it. The world will be redeemed, for God him- 
self has declared that it shall be. Let not those whose joy 
it should be to hasten that day, postpone it by parading be- 
fore the world the skeleton of past traditions and the sanc- 
tity of ancient customs. Let dogma go to the winds if men 
can only be persuaded to serve God and to love their fellow 
men. And they will do this when the church teaches 
Christianity by its example and by its unconquerable deter- 
mination, and not by empty words and b}' the dry formali- 
ties of our modern religion. 

Why should Christian men fight against the truth and 
against God, thereby delaying for years and centuries the 
coming of the spiritual kingdom of Christ ? Why should not 
every heart be ready for a spiritual crusade that would sweep 
over this land of ours like a welcome rain when the earth is 
parched and dry ? Is it because we are all devils and will 
not be converted to the truth ? Is it because we care noth- 
ing for God or for the world, but only for our selfish inter- 
ests and for the spiritual ease that comes from spiritual inac- 
tion? Being Christians in name, are we still heathen 
because we only love ourselves and care nothing for God's 
commands or for our neighbor's welfare? 

Men Can be Won. 

Men are not fools. They will not accept form and pre- 
tense for solid truth. But whatever is clearly and unmis- 
takably proven to be worthy of their thoughtful considera- 
tion will meet with at least a measure of approval and of 
support from the majority of thinking people. A real, result- 



MEN CAN BE WON. 49 

compelling Christianity, one that is not only self-evidently 
true, but which stirs the hearts of its discipks to enthusiasm 
and to unselfish action would not lack for converts. Such a 
Christianity as this would sweep over the whole world and 
quickly claim it for truth and for the church. And yet, can 
any one sa}^ why our Christianity should not be all this and 



more r 



This is an intensely practical age, and men are not to be 
won to self-sacrifice and a consecrated life by a Christianity 
that does not prove itself complete in every respect as it 
goes along. They acknowledge their duty, they are even 
ready to admit their sins against Heaven, if not against man, 
but they are not religious and they will refuse to become so, 
until the word can be redeemed from the stigma of reproach 
which clings to it and be made to mean something more 
than it does in the church to-day. If we have nothing to 
offer men but a salvation in some future life and a negative, 
almost aimless experience in this one, we have a barren 
plea and one that thinking men will not accept. Even if 
the Bible and their own experience did not teach them that 
an indolent faith is dead and valueless, they would not 
respond readily to the idea of a dogmatic salvation and a 
Christianity with neither the fire of action or the spirit of 
the self-denying love which Christ himself exemplified, to 
recommend it to their consideration. 

That the church is to-day presenting to the world an 
emasculated Christianity of this character, one largely made 
up of the froth of aspiration rather than of the fire of inspi- 
ration, and which ignores the duties and opportunities of 
the present in a beatific vision of future happiness, is 
because its religion has been learned in the schools and in 
poring over commentaries, rather than in a study of the 
present moral needs of the world and in a diligent search 
for remedies for present ills. The religion of the era of 
Christ, even, will not suffice in all respects for the twentieth 



50 1896, AND THE FIVE REDEMPTION YEARS. 

centur}' after Christ, because the whole aspect of human life 
has changed since then, and new problems invariably de- 
mand new remedies. Neither can men of the present age 
be won by the religion of the dark ages of the world, or by 
methods which have invariably failed wherever they have 
been tried. Even the religion of j'esterda}- will not do for 
to-day, for God's work ever moves onward. People may 
still unite with the church from a strong sense of duty, or 
because their emotions msLj sometime have been quickened, 
but even that does not make Christian disciples of them. 
The religion of emotion and of inaction has had its day; 
now comes the one of heroic purpose and of decisive energy. 
The world must be redeemed and for this reason the disci- 
ples of Christ must be mustered anew and ever}' Christian 
soldier must be called upon to do his dut}-. A paper army 
wins no victories and overthrows no giant wrongs. 

It is not difficult to persuade men to la}' down their very 
lives, if that is necessary, in defense of great principles. 
When the liberties of a country- are in danger, the young 
men eagerh' enlist in its defense. The call for help and 
sj'mpathy in any great and worth}' cause invariably meets 
with a response. Then why should the Christian church be 
so impotent and nerveless before its foes .'' With the grand- 
est plea that was ever presented to man; with a glorious 
cause that should enlist every man's sympathy and his most 
earnest support; with the Son of God as the Captain and 
Leader of our hosts, and with the rewards of both Heaven 
and earth at our command, not one single year should be 
required in which to win this whole land for righteousness, 
for God, and for humanity. But with this cause and with 
an inspiration that should stir the dullest heart, behold a 
waiting and a trembling host, the despair of its friends and 
the derision of its enemies, substituting for the inspiration 
of Heaven weak lectures upon morality, and as weakly de- 
claring that the work before it is impossible; that it can 



A SIGNBOARD KELIGION. 



51 



only preach and pray and wait for some miraculous world 
redemption ! 

Can God consistently answer the prayers of an indolent, 
faithless host like this ? Will victory perch upon the ban- 
ners of an army that hides in camp and shudders at the 
mere suggestion of a conflict ? When wall the church learn 
that action, not sentiment, is the basis of salvation and the 
price of victory ? When will it give up its camp routine 
and its day-dreams of bliss, and enter with vigor and with 
determination upon the conquest of the world for Christ 
and for humanity which was entrusted to it almost nineteen 
centuries ago ? 

Is it an unwarrantable demand that the church of Christ 
should be asked to take higher ground than ever before, 
and at once and without equivocation, fulfill its mission to 
the world ? 



A Signboard Religion. 




on an active campaign. There is 



A prayer-meeting ac- 
tivity, a mere freshening 
and polishing of the sur- 
face in our Christian ex- 
perience, will not sufiice 
in the place of a definite in- 
terest and actual service 
in behalf of the Heaven- 
ly-appointed wards of the 
church. This has its val- 
ue, just as a dress parade 
in plumes and feathers 
has its value in a military 
camp. But every tried 
soldier knows that there 
are no dress parades up- 
no time for them. The 



52 1896, AND THE FIVE REDEMPTION YEARS. 

enemy must be found and either conquered or captured. 
The time for dress parades, for the mere freshening of the 
outward appearance, is forgotten. There is work to be 
done, and unless the leaders are dress paraders and camp 
boasters it cannot be done too quickly. 

The church to-day seems to be striving after the plumes 
and the speckless clothing of the dress parade, and because 
it is such tremendously hard work for a Christian with little 
or nothing to do to keep himself up to the exhibition point, 
where he can shine as an example to others, that the}- call 
this Christian service ! Going to and from the prayer meet- 
ing room, and giving one's experiences while there, is sup- 
posed to be the means by which God is converting and 
redeeming the world ! 

Some good soldiers can be won by a beautiful dress 
parade, but this country, north and south, would never have 
enlisted four million soldiers for dress parade purposes. 
Good soldiers require an adequate motive; poor ones can 
be bought for show. In trying to make the wa}^ to Heaven 
too easy for its converts, the church has missed its mission 
and degraded the cause that gave it birth. Instead of a con- 
quering host, the church of God has become a signboard 
army, and is making the usual progress that signboards do. 

Drill, drill, drill, forever drilling within closed walls, and 
waiting for the world to come to it to be saved! The 
church does not even learn a lesson from ancient Jericho. 
Then the enemy was within, and the eager hosts of God 
were without and really anxious to capture the city. And 
God helped them ! But now the hosts of God are within 
the walls, unwilling to stir beyond them, while the enemy 
is encamped close about and utterly indifferent as to what 
the church does as long as it stays inside. And earnest 
prayers for victory have no avail. Possibly it would be 
another miracle of grace, although the church does not pray 
for it, if the walls should tumble down by miraculous agencies, 



wanted: modern ideas and a little vim. 53 

and our Christianity were compelled to find a lodging place 
in the hearts and homes of the people outside the walls. 
Of what use is a boxed-up, signboard Christianity when the 
hearts of humanity are not only to be reached, but won? 
Can a signboard enthusiasm ever win the world for Christ? 
If men are to be converted by the spiritual machinery of 
Heaven, of Vv^hat use is a Christian church? If even Chris- 
tians will not exemplify the brotherhood of man after they 
are converted, why should Heavenly energy be wasted upon 
such a barren task as that of converting them? If the 
Christian church is of no use to the world except to supple- 
ment in some feeble way the business integrity of the age 
which is making men honest, and the social courtesy that is 
making them kind, why not let business integrity and social 
courtesy be our standards of excellence and be satisfied with 
that? Why continue our vain professions of obedience to 
God and of love for our fellow men if religious entertain- 
ment and a deadening of the Christian conscience is the 
main result of our expenditures for the preaching of the 
gospel? How much has all this expenditure added to the 
Christian stature or to Christian energy in the last century? 
How much has it added to the happiness and to the welfare 
of our communities in the last year, or in the last five years? 
Why should not church vestrymen balance this account 
while they balance the other, and ask themselves if a sign- 
board religion really pays ? 

Wanted: Modern Ideas arid a Little Vim. 

The real salvation of mankind evidently requires a new 
order of things in churchly thought and action. The cant 
of a babe-like dependence upon the will of God, which 
means nothing but inaction, must be given up. God evi- 
dently has no use for Christian babes in the conquest of the 
world. The dependence upon God of the Christian disci- 
ple who is really working for the vSalvation of his neighbors 



54 1896, AND THE FIVE 'REDEMPTION YEARS. 

and the regeneration of his coramunit}-, is a great and a 
sublime truth ; the trust of the one who is forever praying 
for inspiration but who never gets it, and who can learn no 
enthusiasm in the needs of the world about him, is evidentl}^ 
valueless. 

In the place of all this word religion and a dead faith 
there must be hard work, earnest thought, tact in approach- 
ing men, and a bulldog persistence. It is easier to write 
sermons and deliver them than it is to arouse the activities 
of a people and set them at work along practical lines, or to 
transform the moral and social life of a community. It is 
easier to denounce card playing, dancing, and theatre-going 
from the pulpit, than it is to either suggest or to provide 
social amusements for 3'oung people that will actually take 
the place of these. It is easier, too, to denounce the poor 
saloon-keeper and the place he has fitted up for the enter- 
tainment of those who are tired of the monotony of a dull 
and uneventful home life, than it is to delve down into the 
social problem until a remedy for the saloon has been found 
and applied within the home itself It is easier, also, to 
cling to the machinery of established customs in church 
and Sunday school work and simph' stand up and go 
through the motions, than it is to break awa}' from these 
customs and introduce new methods that will make Chris- 
tian work uniformly successful. It is easier to let children 
drift in and out of the Sunday school, and to sing, ''Come. 
ye sinners, poor and needy," than it is to make the motto, 
*'No soul unsought; no child not won," the law and aim of 
Christian activity. It is much easier to lie down and dream 
of a miraculous world redemption than it is to arise and bj' 
the power of an unconquerable determination, trusting in 
the power and the willingness of God to do his part in the 
work, to bring that redemption to pass in any community. 

If it were not for the unconquerable instinct of life in the 
human breast, and the punishment of pain that attends 



wanted: modern ideas and a little vim. 55 

upon self-destruction, it would be easier in some instances 
to lie down and quietly starve to death than it would be to 
get up and go out into the world in a fierce struggle for 
existence. Nature compels men to struggle for physical 
life, but Christian activity depends only upon the divine 
qualities of love and enthusiasm within our own breasts. 
But we, ignoring our duty to God and to the world, ignor- 
ing the glorious opportunities before the church and the 
call of human sympathy, which sometimes stirs our hearts, 
sit down with folded hands and dream of future outpour- 
ings of Heavenly grace when God will convert the world 
without any trouble upon our part whatever. Like the 
moral starvelings upon our streets who will not work, we 
have only learned to hold up our hands for the spiritual 
food that keeps us from complete extinction. 

God commands us to win the world for him, but we have 
already forgotten our mission and our duty. The world is 
ours if we will only claim it, but we will not even do that. 
Humanity can certainly be won, not in some future age of 
the world, but now, and yet we will not take the trouble 
to learn how. The coffin-like walls of our churches bury 
our activity and our influence as completely as though the 
sleep of death has settled over the whole Christian world. 
As far as any adequate result upon humanity is concerned, 
the church is virtually dead and our Christianity a pretence. 
The living fire of enthusiasm has gone out. We know not 
God, and have forgotten our neighbor's, direst need. Our 
hearts are cold and still. What care we for the childhood 
of the race or for the masses of the people? If they will 
not believe in our barren plea and accept our churchly sal- 
vation, let them die in their sins! Why should our peace 
be disturbed by strenuous efforts to save them if they do not 
even care to be saved? 

Though men die and the childhood of the race is lost, 
our peaceful dreams go on. But Satan lives and works! 



56 1896- AND THE FIVE REDEMPTION YEARS. 

The power of evil to perpetuate itself shames the feeble 
efforts and the thoughtless indifference ot Christian people. 
Christian sentiment and moral heroism to-day appears to be a 
barren mocker3\ Satan is joint ruler with God in America in 
the year 1896 simpl}^ because the disciples of God are dream- 
ing in their tents. Is it blasphem}^ to declare this? Then 
let the stigma rest where the blame for the fact itself belongs ! 

Five Years Enough. 

Can this world in epitome which we call America, be trans- 
formed and redeemed within the limits of the present century? 

If salvation were a laborious process and men were com- 
pelled to wait their turn before they could become recon- 
ciled to God, a million 3'ears might not suffice for the salva- 
tion of the whole w^orld. But in this electrical age when 
the enthusiasm for some w^orthy cause may sweep over the 
earth in a single da}^ and the text of a new religion of an 
honest love for God and a genuine human S3'mpathy can be 
made known to every civilized man within a week, it is folly 
to stand idh' waiting for the centuries to bring a Heaven- 
sent, wizard-like reformation into men's hearts and lives. 
That this is not God's plan for human redemption has been 
proven over and over again in ever}' century since the 
Christian era commenced, and it is proven to-day more con- 
clusively than ever before. Only a blind and indolent 
church can ignore this plain object lesson of the centuries 
and declare that it has nothing to do but to pra}^ and to wait 
until the whole world shall be converted by Heavenly agen- 
cies. God brings wonders to pass in ever\^ age of the world, 
but in every case the instruments he uses are human instru- 
ments, and these instruments, like perfect machinery, must 
do the work the}' are set to do, or failure is the sure result. 

A moment of time is sufficient when a man has come to 
the point where he is convinced of his duty and is deter- 
mined to change the destinies of his life. A ^^ear is ample 



FIVE YEARS ENOUGH. 57 

time in which to change the destinies of a great people 
when world problems are being solved. In times of great 
danger a single month is sufficient in which to arouse the 
activities of a nation and prepare for deadly war. To say 
that centuries must elapse before a few million men can be 
convinced of the truth and persuaded to accept it, is a mere 
excuse for inaction and a blind for the insufficiency of the 
modern plea for salvation. A word reformation based upon 
dogma can never be brought about; a heart reformation 
based upon absolute truth and the principles of human 
sympathy and honest obedience to God, can be accomplished 
whenever the church has reached the point of accepting 
absolute truth in the place of its dogma, and is determined 
that the work before it shall be done. 

Truth, when it is put in a form in which it may be clearly 
apprehended, will never fail of acceptance. It is because of 
the false conceptions of truth, even among its advocates, 
and the barnacles of error which still cling to it and which 
thinking men will not accept, that no greater progress has 
been made in its advancement. 

What power does the modern conception of Christianity 
have over the heart of the average man ? It is his duty to 
become a Christian, to be sure, but, practically, what is to 
be accomplished by it? Is the Christian so far beyond the 
moral man in his sympathy for humanity and his zeal in its. 
behalf, that the distinction between them is clear and un- 
mistakable? When even Christians fail to exemplify the 
principles of a Christian brotherhood among themselves, 
and neither their love for God or for humanity prompts 
them to enter upon an active campaign for the conquest of 
the hearts of their fellow men, why should other hearts be 
touched or the enthusiasm of a great cause lay hold upon 
their activities ? 

A lifeless cause wins no converts ; a barren plea touches 
no heart and arouses no conscience. A selfish salvation 



58 1896, AND THE FIVE REDEMPTION YEARS. 

may appeal to a man's cupidity but it excites no enthusiasm. 
To seek salvation may be a laudable purpose, but only those 
who forget Heaven and work for the salvation of the race 
can claim the name of Christians. And with all these drag- 
ging deficiencies in our modern conception of Christianity, 
even the call of duty loses its power. Dut}^ ? Why should 
a man get himself saved and then sit down and pray? If 
the church is not at fault; if it is God's will and pleasure 
that the majority of men shall be lost and human effort can 
accomplish nothing, then let us not desert our weaker 
brethren and go on our happy way to a selfish, theological 
Heaven. Let us all be damned together ! 

Is this heresy ? Or is it heresy to imagine that God has 
provided a selfish salvation for professed Christian people 
and that they have little or no concern with the salvation 
of the world outside of themselves ? Is man his brother's 
keeper, or may he forget him and thus become his enemy? 

The main question is not how long it will take to convert 
the world, but how long it will take to first convert the 
church. 



BOOK III. 
THE CRUSADE PLAN. 
A World Forgotten. 

The child-life of the world presents a wide field of infinite 
possibilities for Christian thought and effort and for well 
directed energy, and yet the deep significance of these 
opportunities are well nigh forgotten by Christian people. 
The very well-springs of influence lie here, and nations may 
be made or lost in the cradles of the race, and yet less than 
one-half of the children and young people are in the Sunday 
schools or under definite Christian influence. With the 
destinies of the remainder, or with their influence upon the 
moral life of the world, the church apparently does not con- 
cern itself. 

And it is a field that is open and waiting if the church would 
only enter in and fully possess it. There is no parent so 
base that he does not wish a better destiny for his child 
than he is able to give it, unaided. There are few who 
would not gladly give their help and influence to promote a 
better moral training for the young, if their help were really 
solicited in a way that would convince them of its impor- 
tance. Every hindrance would quickly fade away before 
the determined energy and aroused enthusiasm of people 
who were really anxious to win the world for Christ. We 
have an overabundance of the lazy faith which takes it for 
granted that God is going to convert the world for us; we 
seem to have none in the power of an active, common sense 
Christianity over the hearts of men, and which will be able 
to enlist them in the cause of human progress and of the 
real salvation of the world. 



■6o 1896, AND THE FIVE REDEMPTION YEARS. 

The redemption of the childhood of the race from the 
many temptations to sin, to indolence, to frivolity, and its 
salvation from every weakening tendency-, is a nobler and 
a more inspiring cause than an^^ that ever enlisted the sym- 
pathies of men. The world of childhood saved from sin and 
taught true Christian manhood and womanhood means a 
world redeemed ! Let the church amend its slipshod, one- 
hour-a-week methods of winning the children for Christ, 
and actually save those who come within its influence, for a 
better and a nobler destiny, and it can boldly claim the 
S3^mpathy and the service of every one. The world stands 
ready to be enlisted in an active Christianity ; it can never 
be won for an emotional one, which means feeling and an 
abundance of talk, but no service. There is nothing that 
succeeds like success ; there is nothing that fails like failure. 
And with its record of one j^oung man saved in twenty, it 
is, perhaps, little wonder that the church has no stronger 
hold upon the gratitude and admiration, or upon the sym- 
pathies of the people. 

The careless mother can be won for the church through 
her love for her child, if she can be convinced by actual 
observation that in the church lies safet}^ for him and Chris- 
tian manliness. The thoughtless father can be led to aban- 
don his vices upon the plea of his child's welfare, who 
would be deaf to the call of abstract duty. And yet these 
powerful pleas for higher living and a more earnest co-op- 
eration with the purposes of the church, are almost entirely 
neglected. The duty plea rings out almost interminably 
from our pulpits. We beg of men to get themselves saved 
and become living signboards upon the way to Heaven. 
We seldom think to ask them to help save their own chil- 
dren, and the world as well. The childhood of the race is 
ours if we will claim it and hold it for Christ, and through 
the children we can save the parents also. But we sing 
praises in our churches and wonder when God will save 



A WORLD FORGOTTEN. 6l 

mankind from its sins of neglect and indifference, utterly 
unmindful of the fact that we are the very greatest sinners 
of all. 

We have our Sunday schools, to be sure, and we point to 
them as a remarkable evidence of the wisdom and activily 
of the church, but how insufficient these are in really pro- 
moting a Christian manhood and womanhood among the 
children from unchristian homes need not be told. Even 
the children from Christian homes are not always safe from 
the persistent and subtle temptations which assail them every- 
where, and possibly in their own homes. An hour of cate- 
chetical instruction each week is a mere feather's weight in 
counteracting the positive evil influence of a whole week of 
temptation and of thoughtless example, which every child 
must undergo. Unless the church works far harder than 
this, it cannot hope to win the children, and through them, 
the world itself 

And yet, who can estimate the possibilities that we so 
carelessly throw aside when we neglect or forget a little 
child. St. Paul was once a child, and so was every one who 
ever helped to make this world a better and a happier place 
to live in. In the life of every child there are infinite possi- 
bilities for good if they could only be developed and wisely 
trained. It maj^ be that there are to-day among the chil- 
dren of civilized lands, a million St. Pauls if the churcn 
could only find them and train them in the cause of Christ. 

Whatever the temptations of the child may be, they are 
still worse when a boy emerges from the restrictions of 
childhood and begins to look out upon the world with some 
measure of independence. The saloon standard of man- 
hood is to-day the prevailing type in our American world. 
Our growing boys seldom take ministers or total abstainers 
for their models of manhood. They are far more likely to 
take the hearty, hale fellow who patronizes the saloon, and 
who represents it to the world. The influence of a Chris- 



62 1896, AND THE FIVE REDEMPTION YEARS. 

tian man is a negative one, the influence of the better class 
of saloon patrons is positive and very pronounced. There 
is nothing in abstinence from evil habits that attracts atten- 
tion, but the three saloon graces, the habit of drink and its 
concomitant habit, treating, the silly habit of the use of 
tobacco, and the equally inexcusable habit of profanity, all 
indulged in in a gentlemanh' and brusque way, of course, 
immediately attract notice and seem to lead the newly 
enfranchised male mortal to zealous emulation. The cigar- 
ette or the cigar is the commencement, and the rest follow 
as a matter of course ; or, if the}^ do not follow, the cigar 
alone marks ver}" distinctly the dividing line between self- 
ishness and unselfishness, which the 3'oung man passes, per- 
haps never to return. From that time on his ruling motive 
is self-indulgence and the sterner qualities of Christian man- 
hood have no attraction for him. With all our efforts we 
still fail to save our children from the ridiculous vices of 
humanity, and the}' tell us that nineteen 3^oung men, many 
of them from our Sunday schools, choose the saloon stand- 
ard of manhood, or incline toward it, to every one who is 
persuaded to enlist with Christian people for the moral and 
spiritual regeneration of the world. 

The child is forgotten and is allovs^ed to drift whichever 
wa}' he will, the young man is neglected and mourned over, 
but the world is not saved. Is our cause really such an 
unw^orthy and insignificant one that it w^eighs as nothing 
beside the claims of the cigarette, and only one young man 
in twenty can be enlisted in its defense? Or have we for- 
gotten our cause and the God who redeemed us, and are 
only concerned in providing religious entertainment upon 
the Sabbath for ourselves and for our children? 



A PUSH FOR THK MASSES. 63 

A Push for the Masses. 

The industrial life of the people should certainly receive 
some serious consideration from the church. The masses 
of the people are working people, and whatever affects their 
toil lies very close to their hearts. An organization deeply 
interested in their salvation in another world, should not 
be utterly unmindful of their salvation from unnecessary 
miseries in this one. 

The church is supposed to contain the greater proportion 
of the rich men of the country. It is its boast that the 
successful men of the country are to be found within its 
ranks. Here is a grand opportunity for it to inaugurate a 
millionaire's crusade for better conditions among working- 
men, and, incidentally, a conquest of their souls. But be- 
yond founding a few colleges for the children of the well-to- 
do, and miscellaneous charity doles of one kind and another, 
what influence are the Christian millionaires of our land 
exerting upon the moral and spiritual life of the people? 
The field is a wide one, and one well worthy of the energies 
of any philanthropist, but how many earnest enthusiasts 
are there who are supplied with abundant means for carry- 
ing their plans for bettering humanity into actual practice ? 
Does money deaden the spiritual activities of a man, or is it 
a mere coincidence that the enthusiasts have little money, 
while those who are rich are either spiritually dead, or 
are so busy taking care of their money that they have for- 
gotten the world from which their money came ? 

The prominent manufacturers of the land are largely 
found within the ranks of the church or in close affiliation 
with it. A Christian movement for thriftiness, morality, 
and improved methods of living among working people, 
inaugurated and engineered by the Christian capitalists of 
the land, would go very far toward solving all labor prob- 
lems and at the same time capture the hearts of those prom- 



64 1896, AND THE FIVE REDEMPTION YEARS. 

inently benefited. The common sense philanthropy of the 
next century will doubtless devise some means for giving to 
working people all the advantages which abundant capital 
and wholesale methods of caring for the bodily man can 
provide for them. The workingman's wages, well spent in 
wholesale purchases and wholesale methods of living, 
would give to all a comfort which few now enjoy. Why 
not bestow some thought upon this matter and inaugurate 
the good work at once, thus gaining for the toilers of the 
land some happy years of modest luxury amid vastly more 
favorable surroundings, and only asking in return that they, 
as well as their benefactors, shall exhibit the spirit of Chris- 
tian courtesy and a brotherly kindness? Or is the promo- 
tion of the Christian spirit and a brotherhood among men, 
something utterly foreign to the purposes of the church? 

Co-operation, not among laboring men alone, but between 
capital, talent and labor, appears to be the logical. Christian 
solution of the labor problem. When each is interested to 
a greater or less degree in what concerns the welfare of all 
■and capitalist and laborer count their gains in an equal ratio, 
there will be a community of feeling that can never exist 
between masters and their men. State co-operation is an 
:iridescent dream, but Christian co-operation may become a 
beautiful and consistent reality. And surely Christian cap- 
italists, if they love humanity, can accord the mutual bene- 
:fits of profit-sharing to those who are bound to them by the 
peculiar ties which exist between a manufacturer and those 
^who do his work and help him earn his wealth. 

What men will not do from a sense of duty, enforced by 
.a State policeman, they will gladly do when their own sel- 
£sh interests are at stake, and from a spirit of brotherly 
interest. Once let the principle become established that 
the State owes us a living and we will become the greatest 
nation of shirks and pap-suckers ever known. But in 
Christian co-operation the manhood of the individual will 



AN OPEN DOOR. 65 

be preserved intact. We will join hands, not to get the 
most possible for the least expenditure of labor, and to 
become the puppets of so many political bosses, but for the 
mutual benefit and the welfare of all. The one is slavery 
even though the State be the master, the other is true Chris- 
tianity, complete and far-reaching to be sure, and yet logic- 
ally perfect. We will be one family in every human inter- 
est, and yet every man will be free and complete within 
himself. 

While these problems of the industrial world may not be 
strictly within the province of the church, surely the right 
solution of them can be promoted by it. At least let it not 
be said that the Christian religion offers no encouragement 
to the workingman in his outlook toward the future. For 
when we help the workingman in the hard problems of his 
daily life, we shall also win his heart. 

An Open Door. 

A remarkable opportunity for the aroused activities of a 
determined church is found in the social life of the people. 
The average community in city or country is a social sub- 
cellar where inertia and indifference have settled down upon 
the people like a deadening pall. A few active ones, includ- 
ing a majority of the young people, perhaps, manage to get 
some social enjoyment in ways that may be wholesome or 
not according to the moral tendencies of those who take the 
lead. But even where social activity is the greatest, and its 
tendencies are the most wholesome, there are many who 
are left outside of its kindly influences. 

In every community, since the church, except for its mob 
socials and its prayer-meetings, has abdicated its mission as 
a social reorganizer, Satan has a wide opportunity to exert 
his influence upon the social activities of the people. But 
his richest harvest field is the community which is socially 



66 1896, AND THE FIVE REDEMPTION YEARS. 

dead. There are both social and sexual instincts in human 
nature which cannot be ignored. Given their logical field 
for wholesome development, the}^ tend onl}^ to beneficent 
results. The ver}^ existence of the race depends upon them. 
But repressed and compelled to hide in the cellar-like dank- 
ness of dark corners, that which should be love and kindh^ 
friendship becomes passion, life becomes death, hope and 
joy become despair. Because the church refuses to have 
anything to do with the social life of the people, and confines 
its influence upon it to fierce denunciations of the ordinary 
social pleasures, the verj^ evils which it most deeply deplores 
flourish like potato sprouts in a damp, neglected cellar. 

This is but the dark, dank side of the social question. 
Ever}' community, because of the neglect of its good people, 
s not left to feed the bawdy houses of this Christian age of 
the world, but every community has its damp, dark corners 
into which Christian love and care seldom penetrate. Even 
in its more wholesome aspects, our social life needs the 
earnest thought and vigilant care of those who are jealous 
for the highest Christian culture and anxious for the moral 
advancement of the world. As the church hopes to win 
society for Christ, it should certainly be ready to improve 
ever}^ opportunity- to enter into the world's social life in a 
a very direct and positive way. 

Wherever the social instincts of the people have been 
neglected and repressed it will surely find a read}^ welcome 
waiting for it. It may go wherever it will if it onl}^ goes 
with blessings in its hands, and in the name of Christ. 
And yet it has been said that no way has ever j^et been 
found for reaching the masses of the people, unless it is 
with bass drums and tambourines ! Our word religion is 
supposed to save us for a future Heaven, but it cannot save 
us and our neighbors, and our neighbors' children, from 
the dullness and the dangers and temptation of a preverted 
social life. 



AN OPEN DOOR. 67 

The social world, if we only had the wit to see it, is our 
most important and promising mission field. The church 
of Christ is to-day the only avowed moral agency in the 
world. The State represses crime, it does not prevent it, or 
even discourage it, except through the fear of punishment. 
The homes of the people may be either moral or base. Up 
to the point of the open commission of crime they stand 
above the law. A man is king within his own home, 
whether he be saint or demon. Civilization has a very pos- 
itive moral tendency, and our school system and our benev- 
olent orders all have a moral bearing; but the church alone 
is supposed to occupy the whole field of morals, and to be 
responsible for the moral training of the people. At least 
the field is left to it alone. If it does not watch over the 
social surroundings of our young people and see that they 
are wholesome and fully adequate to their demands, no one 
else but Satan will. As God's representative on earth, it 
has no more right to abdicate its mission in this respect 
than it has to allow the children in its Sunday schools to 
drift out of them into the saloons, or to blast the hopes of 
those who trust in it to save their children from at least the 
grosser temptations of life. With this duty plainly before 
it, the church should by no means content itself with indis- 
criminate denunciations of social pleasures. Those who 
criticise should also be prepared to suggest a better way, 
and if it is their duty to do this and they do not do it, their 
criticisms are worse than valueless; they are impudence. 

Let it be known that the church enters the social field to 
promote neighborly kindness and to throw the safeguards 
of a wise oversight about the social life of our young people, 
and it would find all doors open and all hearts ready for 
any demands that might be made upon them. The social 
world belongs to the church in a very significant way, and 
it always has belonged to it, if it had only had the wit and 
the grace and the energy to enter into possession and trans- 



68 1896, AND THE FIVE REDEMPTION YEARS. 

form it in the name of Christ. It is only another instance 
of the blindness and the stupidity of those who would win 
the world for Christ, but who have only learned to preach 
and to pray. We criticise and denounce; we will not im- 
prove or even suggest a better way. We are word jugglers 
where action, and only action, is demanded. The world is 
ours, but we blindl}^ cast aside our opportunities and go on 
in our happ}- -go-lucky way to a dogmatic Heaven. We 
praise God, but we have never learned to serve him. We 
pray, but we have never learned what true prayer is. We 
have faith, but it is an exhortation to be relieved from any 
human service, and a dead load upon our shoulders, spirit- 
uall}^ w^eighting us down to the earth when, by m^eans of it, 
w^e should be winning the world. With a living God and a 
living Christ we have nothing but a dead faith and a dead 
religion with which to represent him to mankind. 

With a universe full of heavens, why should Christian 
people expect to find a single one ? 

Into Every Home. 

It is a mistaken notion of Christian people that when 
they go proselyting they must carry a Bible under one 
arm and a h3^mn-book under the other. These have their 
uses, but under some circumstances they should be carried 
in the heart and not in the hands. 

The longest way around is often the shortest way home to 
one's object. To carry Christianit}' to people in their homes 
is a far easier w^ay of reaching their hearts than to throw 
religion at them from over the pulpit, or talk it over the 
children's heads in the Sunday school room, in the hope 
that in some haphazard way hearts may be reached and souls 
saved. 

To preach the gospel of salvation to a man who will not 
come into our churches and who objects to being bom- 



INTO EVERY HOME. 69 

barded with religious talk upon the vStreet it is necessary to 
get into his home. In no other way can we fulfill the 
imperative gospel command to carry the gospel to his very 
heart and to disciple him for Christ. As the command is 
an imperative one to the true Christian, and, as a man's 
home is his castle, we have no other resource. The battle- 
ground of the home must be won or our cause is lost. 

Since a man's home is his castle, he has clearly both the 
moral and the legal right to dictate terms of entrance, and 
we must go, if we go at all, upon terms that will be both 
pleasant and acceptable to him. This, then is the question be- 
fore the church. How can Christian people enter the homes 
of those not Christians, in a way that will be both agreeable 
and acceptable to them, and yet uphold and advance the 
cause which the church represents? How can we carry the 
gospel of a real salvation to men wherever we find them, 
and actually win them for the truth and for our God ? 

Pastoral visitation is clearly not sufficient. It does not 
go far enough, and the proselyting tongs are usually too 
painfully apparent. District visitation is just as bad, and it 
too often savors of charity or of condescension. We may 
not be sent into the street, but the spirit of welcome is just 
as surely lacking as though we were. A prayer-meeting 
makes too apparent the churchly method of saving men, 
and, as this method has failed in the church, there are no 
good reasons why it should succeed better in the home. A 
church social is utterly out of the question in most instances, 
and it has little or no religious bearing, even at its best. In 
all these conventional means far getting into the homes of 
the people the vSpirit of neighborly kindness and friendly 
interest is lacking, and they fail, as perhaps they deserve to 
fail. They have neither been inspired by Heaven nor by 
the Christian spirit within our own hearts. New ways must 
evidently be devised or we shall still fail. What shall these 
new ways be ? 



yo 1896, AND THE FIVK REDEMPTION YEARS. 



The Neighborhood Club. 

Just here comes both the plain mission and the oppor- 
tunit}' of the church. To promote neighborly love and 
S3^mpathy is surely the larger half of the duty of the church, 
for while we may love our neighbors without loving God, 
we cannot love God without loving our neighbors also. 
Christianity is not divisible in that way. The love of 
neighbor is the only proof we have to show that we really 
love God. Profession, alone, will not suffice. 

The neighborhood club, formed of a few congenial fami- 
lies, and with the church or some Christian organization 
having general supervision over the different clubs and 
their work, will find an open field waiting for it in most 
communities. If, with the purely social aspects of the club, 
are united objects that will tend to benefit the home in every 
way, and help to solve the many home problems that go 
unsolved for lack of thought or of friendly co-operation 
among those interested, there is no reason why it should not 
find a welcome in every home except those of the vicious 
and the base. It will be Christianity applied to a practical 
purpose and brought home to the very hearts of the people. 

Just the kind of an organization that shall best serve the 
purposes of these clubs must be largel}^ left for circumstan- 
ces to determine, but the need of a strong central organiza- 
tion to look after the interests of the individual clubs and 
keep them up to the highest point of efficiency, will be 
apparent. If the church should undertake this special work 
it would probably be wise to do it through a parallel organ- 
ization to be called the Christian League, perhaps, and hav- 
ing its distinct officers and a well-defined field of work. 
Membership in the clubs cannot imply membership in the 
church, of course, but it can carr}^ with it membership in 
the league, and a voice in the management of its affairs. 



THE NEIGHBORHOOD CLUB. 7I 

The aims of such a league of clubs should be as broad as 
the needs of humanity; its scope as wide as humanity itself. 
Much of our moral energy is frittered away in organizations 
devoted to one special purpose. Let it be understood that 
all these purposes and many others, if they tend toward the 
welfare of humanity, are either provided for in this organi- 
zation, or promoted by it. As to membership, not one fam- 
ily should be forgotten or neglected, although all may not 
be persuaded at once to become members of the clubs. ]f 
they have special needs surely that is a special reason wh}^ 
the influences of Christian love and charity should be ex- 
tended to them. 

With this club idea and the Christian league as a nucleus 
almost everything desirable becomes easily possible. Aux- 
iliary clubs for special purposes, such as mother's clubs, 
etiquette clubs, educational and training clubs, and others 
which may be found useful, can be organized as their need 
and value become apparent. Insurance, wholesale methods 
of living, the finding of congenial employment for all, and 
the providing of means and methods for a broader educa- 
tion among young people, are some of the larger advantages 
which may be added through the co-operation of affiliated 
leagues. Whatever is of value to a community or to man- 
kind in the larger aggregate, can easily be obtained when 
men act together in a spirit of mutual helpfulness and 
Christian sympathy. If there is a millenniun of peace and 
happiness in store for men there is no reason why they 
should not have it now, if they will accept it in this spirit, 
instead of waiting for it until some far-distant era of the 
the world's history. 

It may be urged that this is social economics and no part 
of the work of the church, but the objection will not be well 
taken. Just this and nothing else is Christianity. If the 
church has no interest in the welfare of humanity, if its 
mission is not to bring peace and happiness to the world, it 



72 1896, AND THE FIVE REDEMPTION YEARS. 

has no business to try to proselyte men to a religion which 
it ma}' have deduced from some portion of the Bible, but 
from which Christianit}^ has been left out. Worship of God 
and the hope of a future salvation are the most glorious 
truths of our religion, but each is valueless unless it springs 
from the true Christian spirit within our own hearts. It is 
folly to suppose that God can be pleased wdth the worship 
and the professions of a religion from which the most im- 
portant part has been omitted. We must love our fellow 
men or our religion is vain and valueless to the world, and 
equally valueless to ourselves. Has God provided a glorious 
home in Heaven for those who shirk their Christian duties 
and hope to win eternal bliss in exchange for a few prayers 
and doles of charity? 

The plea may be made that this work of reaching the 
homes and the hearts of the people should not be placed 
upon the church or upon the alread}^ overworked minister. 
The object is a good one, and one that will promote the 
efiSciency of church work, but if anything is to be attempted 
in this direction, whj- not organize a club in applied Chris- 
tianit}', outside' of the church, and talk it over? 

We have too many talking clubs for moral purposes 
already, and perhaps the church is the greatest one of all. 
What is imperativel}' needed is a working club as large as 
the church is now, or may become, which will enter into the 
active work of redeeming the world and give vitalitj^ to the 
religion which the church now upholds. The imperative 
duty before the church is not that praj^er and church wor- 
ship shall be maintained, but that humanit}- shall be reached 
and won for the better life and for Christ. All other con- 
siderations must give way to this or else the church has 
reached the limit of its mission and is of little farther use to 
the world. If there is any other way of accomplishing the 
work except by entering upon it in the name of Christ and 
with the inspiration that Heaven has already given to us, 



HOW ORGANIZED. 75 

or will give us if we will take it, by all means let it be found 
and entered upon at once. It' Christianity can be talked 
into people; if a word religion and prayers of faith, or un- 
faith, can save mankind from the tangible evils of the pres- 
ent life and give them the assurance of a future Heaven, let 
a time limit be established and the evangelization of our 
communities be made upon this basis and the people brought 
into the church at once. Perhaps v/e shall learn then what 
to do with them to make them Christians in fact as well as 
in name. But if Heaven does not answer our prayers and 
men will not accept the modern aspect of our Christianity, 
why should our emotional methods of winning men be con- 
tinued in a fitful way in the hope that another eighteen 
hundred years will see the world really saved ? Are human 
souls of so little account that the loss of billions can be con- 
templated with complacency in a stubborn adherence to an 
illogical and unsuccessful method of evangelizing the world? 

How Organized. 

Fortunately for the active work of completing the evan- 
gelization of our communities. Christian people are not 
huddled together in particular neighborhoods, and this fact 
makes the organization of neighborhood clubs and the gen- 
eral work of reaching people in their hom.es, easily possible. 
Christians have only to step outside their own doors to find 
their work already laid out for them, and easy for accom- 
plishment, because they know, or should know, the neigh- 
bors by whom they are surrounded. 

One of the first steps in this aggressive work of world 
redemption should be the preparation of a very full and 
complete gospel census of each community. This census 
should contain all facts obtainable that will aid in any way 
in making the work of reaching people and influencing 
them more successful. With this census as a basis, the work 



74 1896, AND THE FIVE REDEMPTION YEARS. 

can easily be outlined in a tentative wa}^ and the member- 
ship of the different clubs partly determined upon. The 
work of making the plan and its benefits known will be an 
easy matter, and preliminary meetings can then be held for 
organization. In these meetings the very best talent of the 
church should be utilized in starting the work upon just the 
right basis and with a general uniformity in each of the 
clubs. Naturally there will be enough Christian people in 
each club to give the work proper direction and to maintain 
the objects for which it was organized. 

Until these objects are clearly understood and their bene- 
fits apparent, perhaps it would be better not to try to extend 
the membership too far or to attempt too much. A few fam- 
ilies in each community can be made the nucleus for the 
work, and it can then be extended by the principle of accre- 
tion or of division until, in its enlarged scope, all the objects 
of the organization shall be fully accomplished. 

People of special talents should have special parts in the 
work assigned to them, and these talents may perhaps be 
needed in more than one club. Indeed, membership in 
more than one club may be found desirable for many who 
desire greater social opportunities, or who may in this way be 
able to promote the w^ork. In any case, visiting between clubs 
should be promoted as far as may seem consistent or best. 

While the ultimate objects of the league should be as 
broad as the needs of humanity itself, some special objects 
must be made prominent upon the start. Foremost among 
these should be the development of the social spirit among 
men. Friends do not bicker and fight, and gossip about 
each other. It is only those who live upon opposite sides 
of the fence of social distinction or of unneighborly non- 
intercourse, w^ho make faces at each other through the cracks 
and try to spy out each other's shortcomings. Of course 
the social spirit must also be made a Christian spirit or 
many of the good influences of the work will be destroyed. 



THK MATTKR OF KNTKRTAINMKNT. 75 

The work of interesting young people and imparting to 
them broader ideas of the significance of life and the un- 
told value of the opportunities that life offers to those who 
will accept them, should be made very prominent. "The 
very best destiny for all," should be made one of the prom- 
inent working mottoes of the league. The children, too, 
must not be forgotten. Here, also, must be called into play 
the best talent and the keenest wit of Christian people. 
How to win the joung people for the better destiny and for 
Christ, is a problem by itself, and it must be solved! Who 
will say that the wisdom of the church is incapable of solv- 
ing it when this has once been set to work? Prayer will 
help us in this, as it does in every sincere work we under- 
take for .God, but the folly of prayer that ends in forgetful- 
ness, and of an implicit trust that Heaven will take the 
work out of our hands and do it for us while we dream, is 
too manifest to need further illustration. It is not folly 
alone ; it is a crime against those we love the most. And 
yet outside of the Sunday school, this has been the real 
limit and measure of the Christian work we have done for 
the young people of the land, until they took the work of 
saving themselves into their own hands. And now, since 
the organization of the Endeavor movement we fold our 
hands the more tightly and doubtless flatter ourselves that 
there is nothing more for us to do. 

The Matter of Entertainment. 

When people are brought together in any capacity the 
question of appropriate entertainment must not be forgot- 
ten, and this is especially true where those assembled have 
not been trained in the art of entertaining themselves or 
one another. 

In the proposed neighborhood club this question will be 
a very prominent one if the plan is to be made uniformly 



76 1896, AND THE FIVE REDEMPTION YEARS. 

successful. While there will be manj^ things to interest the 
members in the usual order of work, and simple social inter- 
course may justly occupy a ver}' prominent place in the 
meetings, these will not suffice at all times, and 3'oung peo- 
ple, especially, will demand something more in the way of 
lively entertainment. A politician would never be guilty of 
calling people together in a political meeting and leave them 
to entertain themselves, and yet just this is what too often 
happens when people are called together in a social way in 
the name of religion. 

Nothing should be done, of course, that will impinge 
upon the conscientious scruples of any, and yet it is a pity 
that Satan should have been allowed to claim exclusive 
rights in many of the pleasant things of life. There is noth- 
ing that has more of the elements of quiet enjoyment in it 
than a pack of cards. If the distinction could be made 
sharp between their wholesome use and their abuse there 
seems to be no very good reason why the}^ should not be 
used as a means of lighter entertainment in gatherings 
where nothing else can be found to take their place. But 
while the tendency of the times is toward liberality in all 
these things, the time has probably not yet come when card 
playing and dancing, even if strictly confined within proper 
limits, can be introduced in gatherings avowedly Christian 
in their character. Nevertheless there is a strong obligation 
upon the church to amend its standards of propriety upon 
all these points, and not be satisfied with wholesale and 
indiscriminate denunciations of social pleasures. Man was 
created a laughing animal, and he is the only animal that 
laughs. Perhaps there is a deep lesson in this for Christian 
people to study. 

The topic is introduced to show how necessary it is that 
the problem should be met in a spirit of reason and solved 
in the right manner. Heaven will not solve it for us; 
neither will Heaven smile upon our efforts to override 



THE MATTER OF ENTERTAINMENT. 77 

nature and satisfy our young people with nothing but a 
pra3^er-meeting or a mercenary church social, when their 
very natures demand hearty enjoyment that will not conflict 
with Christian experience, or be made a sin by churchly 
edict. We may say that the church has nothing to do with 
the social life or the pleasures of mankind, except to criti- 
cise and condemn, but in this we fatally limit the field of 
church influence and cause it, to this extent, to abdicate its 
mission in the world. The church is in, the world to redeem 
it in every respect, socially as well as spiritually, and not to 
dodge troublesome or unwelcome issues. 

But whatever is done in the way of entertainment the 
absurd fashion of feeding people at an evening gathering of 
any kind, should be abandoned. The gathering should be 
made as simple and as devoid of trouble or expense to those 
who act as hosts, as possible. And yet, if it is thought de- 
sirable, social or picnic teas, given at the general expense, 
might be made a pleasant feature, and thus the whole even- 
ing be gained for social enjoyment and good fellowship. 
There is a wide field for ingenious planning to make these 
clubs just what the people want and need in every respect, 
and still firmly uphold the Christian principle. 

These are but the simplest suggestions. The actual work 
of maintaining the clubs and making them interesting, must 
be wrought out in actual experience in each individual case. 
All these matters should be placed in the charge of those 
best fitted to look after them and to bring them to a suc- 
cessful issue. With the determination that the work shall 
be done, and done right, it can be done ; and in the doing 
people will both gain experience and find their reward. 



78 1896, AND THE FIVE REDEMPTION YEARS. 

What shall These Men Do? 

A serious problem before an aroused church will be the 
right use and direction of the energies of Christian people 
when these energies shall have been consecrated to the new 
work that will need to be done. The ultimate objects to be 
attained are evident to all, but the detailed methods of reach- 
ing these objects are not so clearly apparent. 

The problem of utilizing Christian activity is not a new 
one by any means. But under an order of things where 
w^orship and "being good" has been made to take the place 
of active Christian service, the problem, like many another 
one equally serious, has been given up and matters allowed 
to drift ever3^whither. Even the 3'oung converts, eager to 
show their love for God in honest service for mankind, have 
virtually been told to twirl their thumbs and praj*. Aimless 
prayer and a barren faith may suffice for the emotional, and 
for those so thoroughly converted that they cannot back- 
slide into complete indifference, but for the practical and 
for those who lightly take upon themselves the vows of 
God, something more is needed. These soon discover the 
barrenness of a formal or an emotional church service, and 
either give up religion altogether or become formal or indif- 
ferent Christians. Second cousins to the church the}' might 
be called, if there were a living church for them to be rela- 
ted to. Even in the Sunday school work Christian 3^oung 
men are allowed to drift out with the tide of the overgrown 
boy, because there is so very little for them to do. The 
world is to be saved, but nobod}^ apparently, is wanted to 
help save it. And nineteen j^oung men out of twenty, find- 
ing nothing to do in the modern church, fail to become 
identified with it in an}^ way. 

Is this an overdrawn picture of the use that is usually 
made of the thought and energy of Christian people? I 
would that it were. I would that this century'- had never 



WHAT SHALIy THKSK MEN DO? 79 

grown so old before it could be discovered that in spiritual 
things people die from sloth, as in material life they die 
from suffocation when they have no air. I would that some 
portion of the nineteen young men allowed to drift away 
from the church had been reclaimed before nineteen-twen- 
tieths of the century had been wasted and lost ! 

What shall these men, the young men among the rest, do 
in the awakened church? It is a fair question and one that 
must be answered. If the wit of the church can find no 
way in which to develop and utilize the energies of its mem- 
bership, the problem of the young men and the church will 
still remain unsolved. And we might say the problem of 
the old men and the church, as well. We shall die of 
inertia in the future as we have in the past. The church bell 
will call us to worship, but no bell will be found large 
enough, or with tones sufficiently penetrating, to call us into 
the path of duty, or tell to the world that we have really 
found a religion that is well worthy of their enthusiastic 
support and glad allegiance. The century bells of 1901 
will ring, not upon a world or a nation redeemed, but one 
still lost; their muffled tones will tell of opportunities 
wasted and a cause discredited and disdained of men. 

There will evidently be a much larger field for active and 
intelligent effort when the church shall enter upon a con- 
quest of the homes and the hearts of the people, than there 
is now. The very attempt to reach men that the church 
bell has not yet found and converted, and to convince them 
of their duty, will set millions of minds actively at work de- 
vising ways of extending the Christian influence to these 
forgotten homes. We will not go to church to pray for 
miracles alone; we will go there to plan for them, and when 
our hearts are warm with the glow of an honest love for 
our fellow men, we may be very sure that Christian young 
men will catch the enthusiasm and carry its influence to 
still other hearts. The chill of inaction kills; but the 



8o 1896, AND THE FIVE REDEMPTION YEARS. 

heart-fire of enthusiasm is sure to spread and to nerve men 
for any sacrifice or for any duty. 

The semi-benevolent enterprises of the new movement, 
carrying out more fully the idea of mutual help and Chris- 
tian service among men, will furnish a wide field for the 
energies of many. The enlarged activities of the church 
in every direction, the use of earnest young men who can 
lead, in the place of young ladies who simply charm, as 
teachers of bo3^s' classes, the winning of the *'big boy" 
generally, the concomitant organizations that may be started 
to provide for the enlarged scope of Christian effort, will 
provide work for man3\ But it must not be forgotten that 
the organization of all these forces and their wise manage- 
ment will still call for the deepest thought and the most 
careful planning upon the part of those who hold the desti- 
nies of the church in their charge. The idea that nothing 
hut a praj^er for heavenly guidance is necessary, and that 
Heaven will then not only guide, but do all the work that 
Christians ought to do, must be sharpl}^ and decisively up- 
rooted in men's minds. The most zealous prayer for inspi- 
ration and then forgetfulness, will not sufl&ce. Heaven 
inspires the active mind and guides the willing feet. It can 
do nothing with a signboard Christian. 

What shall the City Man Do? 

Different communities will have different problems to meet 
and solve. A country community where the people are 
largely homogeneous, is widely different from a city com- 
munity where the strata of social distinction run from the 
highest to the ver}^ lowest. The city is, in fact, a world in 
epitome, and has world problems of its own. 

But it must be remembered that the sharpest intellects 
are also to be found in our cities, and if they have not wit 
enough to solve these special problems of bringing the 



WHAT SHAI,!, THE CITY MAN DO? 8 1 

highest and the lowest together in a community of Christian 
feehng and fellowship, if not of goods and chattels, it is time 
that they were exercised in Christian ethics until they are 
sharper. The idea that in spiritual things Heaven furnishes 
the intellect and the energy while the church furnishes 
nothing but the prayers, should have been abandoned cen- 
turies ago. The book of human experience proves it false. 
In the business world whatever is considered desirable or 
necessary is sooner or later accomplished. Fortunately for 
the existence of the race we have not been taught that 
Heaven furnishes the food and that we have only to hold 
our mouths open. It is only in our Christian service that 
we are so ready to take the text of Scripture to pervert its 
real meaning, and lie down in helplessness before every 
serious problem, imploring Heaven to do our thinking and 
acting for us. We have strong men in our churches, those 
able to grasp the machinery of custom and hold on to it by 
might and main until its barren purpose is accomplished ; 
they are even able by their strong personality^ to impart 
some motion to it and permanently increase its eflSciency; 
but they are babes before every new problem in ethics or in 
morals. A Vincent or a Talmage can thrill the hearts of 
the people and inspire them to loftier aspirations, but they 
cannot tell their followers how to reach the masses of the 
people; how to redeem the child-life of the world; how to 
make saloons superfluous; how to introduce an honest 
Christian brotherhood among men ; how to win young men 
and interest them in the work of the Christian church ; how 
to solve the labor problem, or how to worship an offended 
God in a manner that will be acceptable to him. They are 
simply machine-made leaders and they uphold a machine- 
made Christianity. Be good, and acknowledge your duty 
toward God, whether you do it toward man or not, is the 
essence of the religion they impart to the people. And to 
this may be added, perhaps, pay the preacher. 



82 1896, AND THE FIVE REDEMPTION YEARS. 

How would it do to stop paying the preacher for a while 
and flounder along without his help until we have found a 
religion that cannot be imparted byword of mouth, and one 
that can be made applicable even to our cities ? Our min- 
isters are kindly and well-meaning gentlemen, but it is to 
be feared that in some instances the}^ are teaching us the 
traditions of men in the place of a genuine Christianity, and 
a gospel of words in the place of the living gospel of salva- 
tion. Will a religion of "being good" and doing nothing, 
ever save the world? 

The city Christian, like the country one, must learn to 
save his neighbor, and Heaven will not tell him how unless 
he really wishes to know. 

Suggestions. 

The idea should not obtain that the neighborhood club is 
simply an organization for social pleasure. With the mark 
and motto, "The very best destiny for all," it should be 
essentially a working club, and if this mark is to be reached 
there will certainly be enough work to engage and interest 
all. 

Two-thirds of the difference in men is the difference in 
environment and in their ambitions. The remainder may 
consist in what we call natural abilit}-, but natural ability 
without either the wit or the energy to use it, is a poor gift. 
A foolish smart man had better be a fool outright. There 
would be less to mourn over in the waste of good material. 

With thirty million parents having thirty million different 
views as to how children should be brought up or allowed 
to come up alone, it is little wonder that thirty million chil- 
dren and young people, more or less, should fail to find the 
right destiny. There is evidently a wide field here for the 
work of neighborhood clubs if they shall be able to pro- 
mote right views upon this subject and upon a dozen other 



SUGGESTIONS. 83 

subjects that might be mentioned. The story is told of a 
minister who was ver}- earnest upon the subject of how 
children should be brought up until he had children of his 
own, and then he became suddenly mute. But surely the 
aggregated wisdom of our communities, if thoughtfully ap- 
plied, can help in solving these puzzling problems that per- 
sistently enter into our social and into our home lives. At 
least we ought to be able to save our growing boys from 
the idiotic temptations of life, and to teach them better 
views of the significance of life and of its opportunities 
than they now seem to have. 

What is said upon this one point applies with equal force 
to many others. It is full time we got out of our happy- 
go-lucky ideas of life and commenced to learn, if we can, 
what life really means to us. Here and there a man study- 
ing the problem can accomplish but little, but when all 
study these problems of right living and of happiness, tem- 
poral and eternal, wisdom and good sense will stand by 
every man's door, waiting for admittance if he really likes 
their company. 

In communities where economy is one of the most im- 
portant of the graces, and the art of making refractory ends 
meet is one that many people are compelled to study, a few 
suggestions for plans for mutual helpfulness along material 
lines, may not be out of place. 

A clothing loan fund may be found an excellent thing in 
many communities. Those whose incomes are limited often 
find it difficult to keep a large family neatly clothed at all 
times and ready for school or Sunday school. Clothes will 
wear out at unexpected times and usually when the family 
income has just been expended in other ways. The natural 
result is that children are kept at home because they are 
poorly dressed when a little accommodation would enable 
them to tide over these rocky places. If this fund could be 
.supplemented by wholesale purchases of material and a sew- 



84 1896, AND THE FIVE REDEMPTION YEARS. 

ing bee now and then, many would be able to take advant- 
age of it without the feeling that they were asking for an 
accommodation. It wnll be seen at once, w4th a little 
thought, that the principle of "helping one another to help 
all," is capable of indefinite extension. 

An insurance fund for extending the benefits of at least 
partial life insurance to all, is something well worthy of 
thought and attention. That we should leave to many 
women the prospect of a washtub as her destiny, if her hus- 
band should die, is a poor way of making manifest that 
neighborly love which the gospel so imperatively demands 
of us. And with a little wit and mutual thoughtfulness 
this problem, as well as many others, can be solved. 

An educational fund for those who desire larger educa- 
tional facilities than their parents can give them, would 
surely promote ambition and lead to excellent results. In- 
deed the field for practical "otherism," sometimes called 
Christianity, is a ver}^ wide one. Once let the spirit of 
mutual helpfulness become a ruling one in Christian hearts 
and there will be plenty of opportunity for its development. 
"Bear ye one another's burdens," has been one of the most 
reasonable demands of our religion for many centuries, and 
it is strange that so few have even tried to put it into actual 
practice. But now let us hope that "otherism" will become 
the ruling passion in mau}^ Christian hearts. 

Applied Christianity. 

The Christian L<eague, or some organization for Christian 
work in all its departments, could well be adopted in con- 
nection with every church, even w^here neighborhood clubs 
for promoting social intercourse and Christian fellowship do 
not seem to be demanded. At least every church and every 
community should be united in some definite wa}^ with 
every other church and community, in a decisive forward 



APPLIED CHRISTIANITY. 85 

movement along the lines of Christian activity. In some 
way or other the rich and the poor, the strong and the weak, 
should be gotten face to face, if not arm in arm, and taught 
that they have a common human interest that cannot be 
satisfied with fire-tongs sympathy or a contribution-box love. 

There are deep problems in human relationships and in 
human living that cry out to Christian people for solution 
because in their solution lie the moral and social welfare of 
the race. The modern Christian is far too ready to put his 
hand in his pocket rather than in his needy neighbor's palm, 
and to stand one side and denounce social evils and deplore 
their sad results, when he should be undermining them by 
positive, antagonistic Christian influences. Heedless charity 
kills manhood, and thoughtless denunciation only breeds 
contempt. We must help our needy fellow being if we are 
Christians, but how to help him effectively and permanently 
is a question that the church as a practical Christian organ- 
ization must solve. It is also imperatively demanded that 
it should solve the problem of making our communities 
safe dwelling places for the young manhood of the race. 
And Christian men can solve these problems and all others 
connected with the welfare and happiness of mankind, when 
they are once ready and willing to set their wits to work. 

They can solve them by promoting a more sensible social 
Sentiment than that which prevails among men to-day. 
The present stress of human life is not in the direction of 
helping one another or in making the world better, but in 
emulating one another in ostentatious display. Each one 
is striving to be equal to or a little beyond his neighbors in 
everything* pertaining to the outward appearance. Money 
is the real god we worship, whether we have little of it or 
much, because money enables us to shine with, or to out- 
shine our neighbors. And when we get it our first thought 
is never as to how much good can be accomplished by it, 
but how we can spend it to the best advantage upon our- 



86 1896, AND THE FIVE REDEMPTION YEARS. 

selves or lay it safely up to spend at some future time, or, 
perchance, to deaden our children's lives and ambitions by 
means of it. 

Nineteen men out of twenty are doubtless spending every 
penny of their income as soon as they get it, in an insane 
rush to be as near to the head of the social procession as 
the}' can get, and nineteen-twentieths of this income is spent 
upon themselves. The other tvv^entieth may or ma^^ not go 
toward pa3'ing the preacher and for charitable purposes; 
but if it does, there is a certain selfishness, even in the 
spending of that. Under these circumstances it is clearly 
the duty of wealthy Christian men to turn back from the 
head of this procession and try to find some medium ground 
of modest luxury which the majority of their Christian 
brethren can enjoy with them, and which might be a mark 
of emulation to others, but not a snare. If, by a wise invest- 
ment of their wealth, they can put modest luxury easily 
within the reach of the majority of their less fortunate fellow 
beings, they would only be following along the line of 
Christian helpfulness and love. 

Christian people can solve these problems by thoughtful 
study upon all social topics, and by concerted action in the 
promotion of all good tendencies and the sharp discourage- 
ment of evil ones. They can solve them b}' honest efi"orts 
which may tend to equalize the burdens of mankind with- 
out any loss of individual character or responsibility. They 
can solve them by broadening the human outlook in every 
possible direction, and bj' an honest, thoughtful service in 
behalf of their fellow men. 

That the Christian church can solve all these problems if 
it really wishes to solve them, is simple truth. Whatever 
an organization as large as the church desires to do, can be 
done. It is folly to say that from ten to twent}' million 
Christian people in these United States of America are pow- 
erless before every moral problem and can do nothing but 



THE ULTIMATE MAN. 87 

tamely submit to every adverse circumstance and dodge 
every vexatious issue, simply because the powers of evil are 
too great for them to combat and the bondage of past cus- 
toms too strong to be broken. But if they do not want to 
solve these problems that God has placed before them for 
solution ; if they are perfectly well satisfied to make Chris- 
tianity a Sunday recreation or a religious fad, the love of 
God a cheap aspiration, and the love of humanity a penny 
dole to enable them to escape a beggar or an unwelcome 
moral issue, then they will not be solved in this century, 
and perhaps never. Satan will still continue to rule the 
earth as he rules it to-day. The century bells of 1901 will 
ring out upon a land that in every material aspect is a hun- 
dred times farther advanced than when the century com- 
menced, but upon a church that, morally and spiritually, is 
as dead as Julius Caesar. And it is to be feared that people 
will learn to say that Jesus ot Nazareth is as dead as he, 
simply because his disciples are lifeless also. 

The destinies of the world are in the hands of the people 
of God ; but where are the people of God ? Let the roll be 
called and a new mustering made for these redemption years of 
the church and of the woild. And if a living church cannot 
be found, why continue the farce of maintaining a dead one? 

The Ultimate rian. 

The immediate duty of the church, when it has once 
amended its Christianity, is to get after the ultimate man, 
and to lay hold of the ultimate child, holding on to the lat- 
ter for dear life — the life of the church and of the child both. 
When one child has broken away from the influence of the 
church and is lost, ruin stares the church in the face. It is 
only by indefinite repetitions of this one failure that the world 
is lost to it and its mission becomes worse than a failure; an 
abject yielding to defeat and taking it as a matter of course. 



S8 1896, AND THE) FIVE REDEMPTION YEARS. 

A public speaker, if he is wise, invariably addresses him- 
self to the most distant person in his audience. With 
sufiicient lung power to reach and convince the farthest 
listener, it would be foolish for him to whisper his speech 
to those upon the front seats and leave the rest of his 
audience to retire in disgust. 

Our illustration is lame in one particular. The speaker 
who succeeds in reaching the most distant listener may be 
quite sure that all others can hear him, but to reach the 
ultimate man with the Christian influence requires some- 
thing more than a journey to the slums and a prayer-meet- 
ing held in somebody's behalf The Christian influence 
travels from heart to heart and the ultimate man cannot be 
reached until all others are. Nevertheless a journey to the 
slums might be an excellent idea if it gives Christian people 
a point of advantage from which they can work back until 
the lines of influence are all connected up and every home 
in living communication with the house of God. 

There is one important advantage in real Christian work 
in our cities. The slums are seldom very far from the 
palaces and it does not require very much wire to reach 
from one to the other. The man in the office or in his 
factory, if he is a Christian, can reach out with the touch of 
human sympathy to the hands of many who are closely 
related to him, and the man's wife, if she is so minded, can 
learn how these people live and prove to them that she does 
not intend to claim as her inborn right a seat in the boxes 
or the dress circles of Heaven. 

Cut and dried methods of reaching the ultimate man and 
saving, beyond a peradventure, the ultimate child, cannot be 
laid down in a book, and if they could, they would be 
useless, if followed in a cut and dried fashion. The cut and 
the dried has been the bane of the church in all generations. 
If Christian men will not use their wits in Christian work 
the world will still remain lost, for even Heaven cannot 



THK TIME REQUIRED. 89, 

direct an army of signboards and win victories with them. 
The only infallible direction that can be given is to go to 
work with a definite purpose and to use one's wits to the 
best advantage possible, never daring to ask Heaven to bless 
one's efforts until at least one effort has been made. If that 
effort, undertaken in the fear of God, is a failure, it will be 
full time to ask Heaven to show one a better way, and even 
then one should be sure that the way is not under one's feet 
and that he should look down instead of looking up. There 
is a cant in calling upon Heaven at. wrong times and under 
wrong circumstances, and making that the end of all effort, 
that is as bad as professing what one does not believe. 

Does this practical idea of Christian work destroy faith 
and true worship? By no means. No more than charging 
upon the enemy's breastworks with a determination to win 
a victory or die in "the attempt, destroys patriotism in the 
true soldier. It is the stragglers who are in danger of losing 
their patriotism and the best lesson for them would be to 
persuade them to take their place beside the true soldier 
and learn patriotism from his sj)irit of devotion. In the 
name of Christ — do what? Stand still and pray? By no 
means ! March forward, praying as we go ! 

Can the ultimate man in each community in our land be 
found and influenced for good in this present year, or within 
this century ? It is arrant folly to declare that he cannot, if 
the right measures are adopted to find him and move his. 
heart. Then why do Christian people fancy that God does, 
not want the world converted for a thousand years to come,, 
and tremble lest they should anticipate God's purposes by a 
few hundred years ? 

The Time Required. 

How soon can the whole civilized world be organized 
upon some basis that really represents the brotherhood of 
man and the Fatherhood of God ? Within what time zan 



90 1896, AND THK FIVE E.KDKMPTION YEARS. 

the church really enter upon the work of saving men, not 
by a word salvation in our churches, but by a heart salva- 
tion in their own homes ? 

If it were a matter of fashion in bonnets and dresses it 
would spread over the feminine civilized world in about 
three months. If it were a political campaign it could be 
accomplished in two, and then men would complain that 
their business had been interfered with for an unnecessary 
length of time. If it were a bit of highly important news it 
would be in everybody's mouth from San Francisco to St. 
Petersburg in about a day and a half. But being a matter 
of life and death to many, and of eternal happiness to all, a 
year or more will doubtless be necessary in which to arouse 
the energies of Christian people the world over and teach 
them that mankind can really be won, and that a real 
Christianity will save people from their sins and their miser- 
ies whenever and wherever it can be intelligently applied. 

Will the year 1896 witness a decided forward movement 
along these lines, or equally promising ones, in every church 
and every community in our own land ? Can the church 
be brought to a sharp realization of its duty and persuaded 
to actually enter upon it within twelve months' time ? Or 
will it still insist upon making God the scapegoat of its 
shortcomings and declare that the time has not yet come, 
the world cannot yet be saved, the church has never yet 
been inspired to do anything but to preach a word salvation 
and to worship an offended God ? 

Can men be ever led to think? Will they always insist 
upon making Christianity a religion of form and emotion ? 
Will they ever forget the eternal interests of mankind, the sal- 
vation of their own neighbors and friends, the soul interests of 
their own children, in a striving after a form of worship or a 
statement of belief, rather than in a search for the souls of 
men? Will they forever pervert the imperative "Go!" of 
the gospel into the indolent " Come," of modern Christianity? 



THK TIME REQUIRED. 91 

What power in earth or Heaven can arouse the human 
sympathy in men's breasts and lead them to band together 
as soldiers of Christ, for the redemption of our communities 
and of the world? Must we be guided by every other selfish 
interest but that which would make of this world a paradise, 
and of mankind a glorious brotherhood ? Will men even 
reject the love of God, so patiently held out to them, and in 
their selfish egotism, hold themselves above their Creator 
and his commands ? Where words so sadly fail to express 
the deep significance of the opportunity and the duty of the 
church in these epoch-making years of the world's history, 
how can one be sure that words alone can reach and influ- 
ence the hearts of those who love their God, though blindly, 
but who have never yet felt the thrill of enthusiasm that 
can be found in honest and earnest service for one's fellow 
men? Can Christian men be stirred to zealous service in 
humanity's cause? Who, among the Christian people of 
this country, will say that America, God's chosen people of 
modern times, can and shall be redeemed within the next 
five years ? In a call for earnest Christian soldiers, who will 
really enlist for God and for humanity, and be ready to 
march forward to certain victory ? 

If America cannot be redeemed now, in these momentous 
years of the most remarkable of all the centuries, when shall 
it ever be redeemed. Must we sadly admit that this gener- 
ation is incapable of being stirred to a heroic purpose, even 
when it has an opportunity to redeem the unworthy past, 
and to inaugurate a new century which may be made to 
mean great things for the world and for humanity ? Must 
Christian sympathy and progress lag behind every other 
interest the world contains ? Must we still sit dreaming in 
our churches while the world is lost ? 



Book IV. 
THE TALE OF THE CENTURY BELLS. 
A Turning Point in Thought. 

In these latter days of the nineteenth century we have 
certainly come to a meeting and a parting of the ways. 
Men will no longer accept the old and the outgrown, and 
there is little reason why they should. The past, with all 
its blunders and its deficiencies, is dead. We live in the 
living present with its new standards of thought and laws 
of evidence, and these tell us that form is not religion, and 
that worship, without service for humanity, is not Chris- 
tianity. But truth has not been overthrown, or even 
assailed. We simply push aside the veil that dimmed our 
vision and behold the truth itself in all its beauty and com- 
pleteness. And seeing it thus for the first time and realiz- 
ing that it speaks to us not only as a vision of beauty but 
with a voice of duty, we accept it gladly and make it the 
foundation of our lives. 

Neither has any one discovered a new religion. God-love 
and human sympathy run like a golden cord through every 
book and chapter of revelation. We have been blind to 
think that we could divorce the strands and forget the 
weakest of our fellow men while we worship God in costly 
churches. The madness of the dark ages made of religion 
an instrument of torture ; the blindness of the present age 
has placed a man-made gospel in the place of the human 
love and sympathy embodied in the very life and character 
of Christ, and has made the very name of religion a stumb- 
ling block in the way of many. But through it all the 
name of Christ has stood for better things, and to-day is 



A TURNING POINT IN THOUGHT. 93 

made a test to prove the false and the true. The Christian 
man is known and read of all, and the world finds no fault 
in him. And in the new crusade for man's salvation he will 
not lag or flinch. 

For even earnest Christian men must clearly realize that 
the old era of inaction and a negative example is past and 
gone never to return. It is no longer sufficient to love God 
and honor him, and to seek to guard one's own household 
from the temptations of a neglected and half-forgotten 
world. The era of decisive action, when Christian men 
must claim the world for Christ and win it for him, has 
come. 

In every contest a decisive point occurs when those who 
strive must either go forward or turn back. And that point 
in the history of the moral world is now upon us. It is folly 
for us to declare that we have only to continue in the old 
ways, beseeching men to accept our aimless, negative reli- 
gion, and that some time or other God will convert the 
whole world and teach the true Christianity to men. Look- 
ing back upon eighteen centuries of defeat the Christian 
man who fails to realize that continued stagnation is retro- 
gression; that a negative religion cannot cope with positive 
evil, and, being less than it should be, is even a crime 
against God and against, men, is a poor representative of 
the progressive spirit of the age. If our modern Christian- 
ity lacks anything of completeness; if human sympathy has 
been cut out, and obedience to God means allegiance to 
dead forms and customs ; if it means vain words or emotions 
in the place of thoughtful action, then it is a dead religion 
and these judgment years of the church should forever bury 
it out of sight. Between the false and the true we cannot 
hesitate. Never let the name of religion be allowed to bol- 
ster up error or stagnation. Christianity is action. It is 
not death or slumber. 



94 I^Q^j ^^^ THE FIVE REDEMPTION YEARS. 

The Alternative. 

The testing 3xars of the church have evidently come. 
The centuries can teach us nothing unless the}" show to us 
that men, and organizations as v/ell, have an accounting 
time with the world and with their God. Centuries have 
passed unheeded and in the ignorance and thoughtlessness 
of mankind the church of Christ has been enabled to crowd 
the stress of its duty and the fulfillment of its mission from 
one generation to another, claiming in spirit, if not in words, 
that it was God's fault that the world w^as not saved. But 
now under the clear reasoning powers of a generation fully 
awake and able to distinguish between truth and falsehood, 
and between dut}' and pretense, it must stand and prove its 
Christianity to be true and its professions honest, whether 
it will or not. The times demand that the accounting should 
be made whether the church is able or unable to meet the test. 

Past centuries amount to nothing in this accounting. 
Whether w^ell or wrongly improved we have nothing to do 
with them. We have but one to answer for, and w^e have 
no right to even compare it wdth the past and to boast that 
it is not quite so bad as the rest. We cannot even boast of 
the progress of our own century unless the work entrusted 
to us has been done. In the light of the present, and not 
of the past or the glowing visions of the future, how stands 
our account with God? Is the world redeemed? Is even 
our own country, which w^e point to as the most enlightened 
upon the face of the globe, subject to the King of kings? Is 
there one little community anywhere w^here God's reign is 
complete? Where is the man, even, who has learned to 
love his God with all his heart, soul, mind, strength, and 
w^ho really loves his neighbor as himself? Has even he 
learned the full significance of the Heavenly mission to men ? 
Counting Christians by this test, how many of them are 
there in the world to-day ? 



THE ALTERNATIVE 95 

Shall two full millenniums from the birth of Christ be 
allowed to pass before the Christian church shall fulfill its 
mission to the world? Shall w^e enter upon this last of 
twenty centuries with not a single nation yet redeemed? 
The mustering time for the people of God is clearly at hand. 
If the record of the blackened, blotted centuries of the past 
is not to be repeated in the future, the roll must be called 
and those who are upon the I^ord's side step forth for battle. 
Who, forgetting the past and its blunders and only remem- 
bering that he is an enlisted disciple of a living Christ, is 
ready to step out upon the side of right and truth and de- 
clare that a speedy conquest of the world is easily possible ? 
Who stands by the errors, the false and mistaken faith, the 
thoughtlessness, the indolence, the failures of the past? 

Upon the one side is victory and the salvation of man- 
kind. No one can doubt but that the wit and energy of the 
world can save the world, if it is applied along the lines of 
the religion of love for God and for mankind which Christ 
gave to us. A word religion, and one from which the 
human love has been left out, wall not do, and no one should 
be so blind as to suppose it will. But with a perfect and a 
complete Christianity, the victory is sure. By the power of 
God, claimed and used by Christian men, the world will be 
redeemed, and that speedily. 

Upon the other side will be continued defeat. If nineteen 
centuries have not been sufl&cient in which to convert one 
single nation to a religion of words and professions only, 
surely another of like character will not be sufficient in 
which to persuade the whole world to become subject to it. 
When fifteen centuries of defeat have taught us the inade- 
quacy of our perverted religion, wh}" blunder along through 
another century in trying to prove that the world will even- 
tually become subject to it? Millions of men have been 
saved and forgiven at God's altars and from them have gone 
out into the world to drift back again into indifference and 



96 1896, AND THE FIVE REDEMPTION YEARS. 

to show how Httle true religion an indolent church was 
able to teach them. They have learned of the love of God 
and have enjoyed it for one brief hour, but they have never 
learned the power and value of a genuine human S3'mpathy. 
They love their neighbors after a fashion, perhaps, but still 
they have forgotten them and have left them to blunder 
along through misspent lives because the beauty and power 
of a true Christianity has never been made known to them. 
The church bell has rung in their ears, perhaps, but what 
can the church bell tell of the love of God and the worth of 
Jiuman s^anpathy and of earnest human service? 

Upon the wTong side of this clear dividing line are the 
-penetentiaries, saloons, and bawdy houses, the sweatshops, 
the palaces of the rich and the hovels of the poor, and, 
-wherever the sound of the church bell penetrates, misery, 
want, despair, and the hard, crushing sense of human neg- 
lect; man against man, the rich, though Christians, against 
the poor, capital against labor and the strong against the 
weak, every one for himself and only Satan for the poor, 
tag-end crowds who have never been taught thrift or the 
science of living; this is the world as it is in this dot ot 
time we call the year of our I^ord Jesus Christ, 1896. This 
is the tale that the lagging centuries have been writing, 
and now another chapter is almost complete and ready for 
the inspection of him who eighteen centuries and more ago 
taught Christians to pray, "Thy kingdom come; thy will 
be done on earth as it is in Heaven." Are we ready for the 
report? Are w^e ready to stand by it and say, ''Our duty 
has been done. If there is any fault or failing it is thine, 
O Lord. If we have not found our neighbor and brought 
him to Thee, it is simply because we have not been inspired 
to do so." Can the Christian church stand before God and 
the w^orld and make a report like this ? 

Upon the right side — but who can picture it ? Hope, be- 
cause men and Heaven bid us hope; joy, because we have 



MAN FACK TO FACS WITH GOD. 97 

learned the true joy, that of loving and serving each other; 
peace, because if we cannot win it for ourselves our Chris- 
tian brothers will; happiness, yes, happiness for all, and 
even heaven itself, for heaven begins where the true Chris- 
tians dwell, and ends — never ! 

Is it worth our while to arouse ourselves from our flowery 
beds of ease and go out into the world to win it for Christ ? 
Is it really worth our while to obey God and love our neigh- 
bor ? Or must we say with the sluggard, it is of no use ! Men 
are all devils and will not be reformed, ourselves the worst 
of all because having taken upon ourselves the obligations 
of Christian disciples we still refuse to do the will of our 
Master, or tell to the world the glad news of a salvation which 
can save men in this world, as well as in the world to come. 

Can dogmatism save the world ? Can lectures upon mor- 
ality save it ? 

" Thy neighbor as thyself! " And yet we live in palaces^ 
if we can build them, while our neighbors starve for the lack 
of moral help and sympathy, and sometimes for the very 
food we throw to the dogs 1 

Is Christian love and sympathy dead in the world or has 
it never yet existed? Was Christ the only lover of his fel- 
low men ? 



Man Face to Face with God. 

lyCt no man say that true worship is assailed in these too 
truthful words. Man face to face with God is ever upon 
hallowed ground. The emotions of his heart are not for 
critical ken, and he alone can tell the nature of his thoughts 
or the Heavenly message he may receive. An active, 
earnest church upon its knees when ways are dark or danger 
imminent, and when souls are athirst for Heavenly inspira- 
tion and guidance, is the sublimest picture that the hand of 
any mortal may portray. But an inactive church mumbling 



98 1896, AXD THE FIVE REDEMPTION YEARS. 

its prayers and forgetting them ere the church doors are 
passed, mocking God with its lip ser\'ice but not obe^-ing 
him, is an anomaly, if not a farce. It is the effect of God's 
love upon our own hearts and the effect of this transformed 
love upon the world about us, that tells whether we really 
love God or not. The witness of our power with God is in 
the results which flow from our power over the hearts of 
men. The true Christian serves his God and wins victories 
in his name; the religious enthusiast may so far forget his 
duty to humanity that his enthusiasm will be wasted and 
his service will be a barren and useless one. 

The charge of thoughtlessness and of inefficiency in our 
Christian service falls with crushing effect upon every one 
of us. We have forgotten humanit}' while we worshiped 
God. Xot one is clear of the charge of blood guiltiness 
because of the loss of his brother's soul through his barren 
zeal or thoughtless neglect, but many of us have been 
blindly at fault. Millions of Christian people have followed 
the light they had, thinking that it was the full sunlight of 
God's truth and failing to observe how men's ideas and the 
traditions of the past had crept in to blind them to their 
duty. It is to these sincere but mistaken Christian people 
that the church must look for the zest and energy with 
which the work of the church will be pushed forward in 
these closing years of the century, until, under God, ever}- 
community in our fair land may be shaken from end to end 
and regenerated even though it may not be wholly^ redeemed 
and saved. 

The world waits for its salvation; an arm}- many million 
strong has been enlisted to save it. Will any one be guilty 
of the blasphem}' of declaring that God is not ready for 
this arm\- to march forward? Will an}- one say that he can 
find no inspiration in earih or in Heaven which will allow 
him to unite with this army and march forward with it to 
victory. 



WHO WILL HELP? 99 

Who Will Help? 

Twice ten million human souls, in this country, are coun- 
ted among those who honor God and have pledged them- 
selves to serve him. The members of this grand army may 
not all be ready for the forward movement which must come 
very soon if these closing years of the century are to be 
made the redemption era for the misspent years of the past. 
They may not all be able to catch the spirit with which 
these record-making years should inspire them, or be ready 
to respond to the call of earnest people everywhere for a 
grand forward movement all along the line of moral endea- 
vor. Some may even still be dreaming when the century 
bells ring out the old and take out of the hands of the men 
of the nineteenth century the destinies of the world, and of 
the church of Christ. And yet among these earnest men 
and women there must be millions who will listen to the 
call and repeat it, and who will gladly take up whatever 
duty may seem nearest and most pressing, and continue to 
persevere until the work shall be fully inaugurated and vic- 
tory made certain. 

The day of miracles is past because men can work them 
for themselves, if they will only use their wit and energy 
for that purpose. If the redemption of America within five 
years' time is a miracle, nothing is more certain than that it 
can be accomplished by the right use of the means which 
Heaven has placed in our hands. Will it actually require 
one, two, or five years time for twenty million men and 
women to search out the other thirty millions this country 
contains and persuade them to accept a Christianity that is 
self-evidently true, and to become subject to it ? 

The problem only needs to be stated to show how very 
simple and easy it is or may be made. The wonder is not 
that some sanguine soul should conceive the salvation of 
i3ur country possible within this limited time, but that the 



lOO 1896, AND THE FIVE REDEMPTION YEARS. 

Christian people of the land should not have discovered 
how very easy the problem really was and have solved it 
years ago. And they would have solved it if earnest men 
had only been brave enough to have broken away from the 
restricted thought of the past ages of the world and have 
studied truth for its own sake, and not for the sake of 
maintaining the traditions of the church. 

God has many faithful disciples upon the earth despite 
our apparent blindness and stupidity. The throb of human 
sympathy has entered into many a heart that first has been 
face to face with God and there learned the sweet signifi- 
cance of God's love to man. These heart throbs have been 
allowed to grow weaker and weaker under a church policy 
that ignored human love and service, and tried to make a 
miracle-religion out of one so plain and simple that its 
greatest exponent needs no commentator. But the spirit of 
sympathy and of unselfish service is still in every earnest 
heart and is ready to be awakened and to be made effective 
at the call of need or of dut}^ 

It is only necessary for these men and women to return 
again to the experiences of that hour when God accepted 
the complete sacrifice of their lives and hearts and forgave 
their sins. From that experience and full surrender of 
every faculty and possession, they will be ready to go out 
into the world and really win it for Christ. The dual strand 
of their religion will be woven again and bound so firmly 
that nothing shall be able to part it again, or to teach men 
through them that God delights in a worship from which 
the principles of self-denial and obedience have been left 
out. 

Nor is this a work for Christian people alone. It is a 
work for humanity and humanity itself must help and learn 
in this the spirit of human sympathy, if it cannot fulfill the 
higher call of obedience to God and of service for him. The 
parent must help save his child, the wife her husband, and 



AND HEAVEN WILL HELP ! lOI 

the child its parents. The workingman must help save his 
fellow workingman from the senseless vices of humanity 
which not only destroy thrift and manliness, but drag souls 
down to eternal death. Even the children must help, and 
more than older and wiser ones, perhaps, because they can 
find what Christian people have so often missed, an open 
way to the hearts of those who are away from God. 
Indeed, in such a cause, who can refuse to help? 

And Heaven will Help! 

Do we limit or ignore the power of God when we stren- 
uously insist that the human portion of the work of world 
redemption shall be done without further excuse or delay, 
and that the benefits that may come from it may be given to 
man at once? 

The only purpose of these pages is to present the prac- 
tical side of Christianity so clearly and so forcibly that men 
will be compelled to acknowledge both the truth of the con- 
tention and the imperative demands of Christianity upon 
themselves. For this reason the formal phrases with which 
we usually speak of Heaven's supreme authority in spiritual 
things have been avoided. Experience has shown that 
men have hidden behind these dogmas and definitions and 
have utterly neglected plain demands upon their reason and 
upon the abilities which God has given them for just such 
uses as those which are now required of them. The God- 
ward and spiritual side of the work of human redemption 
is abundantly presented in our pulpits and there is little 
danger that men will be allowed to forget it, as they have 
the more practical aspects of their religion. 

>The church can certainly trust God to do his full part in 
this work of world redemption if men will only do theirs. 
They do not need to hesitate a single moment for fear that 
God is not yet ready for them to move forward. And 



1.02 1896, AND THE FIVE REDEMPTIOX YEARS. 

soldiers upon the battle line do not need to be reminded of 
patriotism and allegiance to their cause. It is only strag- 
glers who need lectures upon this point. Active Christian 
soldiers do not need to be told that both their inspiration 
and the victory must come from God. They have learned 
that lesson upon the field of action, and they have already 
forgotten the days when they tried to learn the lesson by 
rote in the praj^er-meeting room. Let no one fear that an 
active church will forget to look to God on the eve ot every 
battle, and to give him the glory when the victory is won. 
The church has yet to learn that not by might, nor by 
power, but b3' God's spirit, accepted into the hearts of men 
and made their inspiration to honest service, will the world 
be redeemed and won. 

Have you received of the heavenly inspiration? If not, 
wli}' do you wait? Is it because God has closed the foun- 
tains of inspiration and there is nothing to be done? Or is 
it because you have not yet become a willing disciple of the 
Savior of men? 



Who Will Lead? 

The soul that heareth the call of salvation may sureh^ 
repeat it. The one who finds the way of duty opening up 
before him like a clear path, msLj surely walk in it. The 
one who can lead, may lead, if he has within himself the 
fire of action and the energy that comes of a determined 
purpose. One man gives the command to charge, but the 
command once given, there is nothing to prevent the veri- 
est private soldier from being the first one upon the breast- 
w^orks of the enemj^ 

And yet the ministry shotfld be in the very forefront of 
this movement to redeem the blunders of the past and to 
turn over to those w^ho come after us a church regenerated 
and a world redeemed. Their verv office makes them the 



WHO WILL LEAD? IO3 

leaders in spiritual things, and they cannot afford to let the 
earnest and sincere people of their communities take ground 
that is in advance of them, or lead in work which should 
not onh^ have their approval but their enthusiastic support. 
If it is God's will that each and every community should be 
reclaimed for him, and every human creature should be 
reached witl\ the gospel influence, then it is certainly their 
duty to give to the work their earnest co-operation and 
thoughtful direction. 

Neither can they afford to become a drag upon the activ- 
ities of their people. The church can never again be made 
into a lifeless, routine church, without disgrace. Human 
thought is too far advanced to permit this, even though 
Christian energy and enthusiasm is lacking. The Christian 
soldier must buckle on his armor and move forvv^ard, or 
incur the dishonor of being called a straggler. The Chris- 
tian minister can never again satisfy the world with a gos- 
pel of barren words. There must be action and service 
because the times and human thought demand it; it is only 
a question as to what that service shall be and how directed. 
In this w^ork the bravest and truest must lead, and the 
Christian minister should be both brave and true, and filled 
with the enthusiasm of the cause he represents. 

Earnest Christian women, may lead. They are a large 
majority in the church of Christ to-day, but being imbued 
with the Pauline spirit of subjection, they have tamely 
allowed the men to read their religion for them, and to 
them. And the result is a natural one. We have a man- 
made gospel of feeling or of form, one that can be preached 
from pulpits and made a source of profit, rather than a 
practical one of action which shall extend outside the 
church walls and convert the world. By all means let 
earnest Christian women lead in the new crusade, and the 
men, who thus far have made a mess of religion, be guided by 
the untrammeled instinct which Heaven has given to women. 



I04 1896, AND THE FIVK REDEMPTION YEARS. 

rather than by the conceited wisdom which men try to dis- 
cover for themselves. With the motto, "No soul unsought, 
no child not won," the Christian women of the land may be 
depended upon to show us the surest way to victory. 

Young people and children may also lead. One of the 
most encouraging indications of the times is that of the 
devotion and enthusiasm of not only thousands, but millions, 
of young people who are taking hold of the destinies of the 
religious world with a firm and determined purpose. They 
have not yet found the nineteen lost young men, but they 
are seeking for them diligently and with fair prospects of 
ultimate success. The new crusade, if one is instituted, 
appealing as it will to the common sense and to the activ- 
ities of young people, and especially young men, will help 
them in their quest. The new work of moral development 
along lines parallel with spiritual activity, will give them 
what they now lack, practical work for themselves, and a 
plea that will appeal to every heart and compel attention 
and consideration. The world belongs to the young people 
in reversionary right, and it is well that they should learn in 
the school of practical experience how to manage its des- 
tinies. 

In this work the children should not be forgotten. They 
are the men and w^omen 'of to-morrow and it is well that 
they, too, should learn by experience the significance of 
Christian service. And if we only knew it they are our 
best missionaries. They hold dominion in the hearts of 
many whom the church would gladly claim. By all means 
let us follow their guidance and thus find a way to the par^ 
ents' hearts. 

Let all lead as they ma}^, and all follow as they should. 



A VOICK, BUT NOT THK VOICE OF MAN. I05 

A Voice, but not the Voice of Man. 

One man may voice the repressed thought of millions and 
when he does, it is not he who speaks, but. mankind. One 
may sound the call to arms and a nation may respond, and 
yet it will not be the voice of one, but the voice of patriotic 
devotion of a nation that prefers death to dishonor. One 
man may be the instrument through which new truths are 
enunciated and new demands made upon the people of God, 
but the man is nothing. If what he speaks is truth and 
the demands that'are made are right and just, it is not his 
voice that speaks, but the voice of God. Whenever the 
clarion notes of truth ring out, men disregard them at their 
peril, for God can use the weakest instrument to make 
known his wall. 

There is but one question to be asked and answered by 
those who read these words, and that does not concern the 
one who wrote them. Are they true? Has God's time 
really come for the redemption of the world ? Have Chris- 
tian men a duty to perform that they have long neglected? 
Is the voice of God calling to-day in millions of hearts for 
a clearer enunciation of truth and higher standards of duty 
and of service ? If it is God's voice calling to mankind for 
the tithes of wealth, of service, of strict obedience, let no 
man think that he can escape it. I^et no man think that he 
can hide from God or disdain the commands that are laid 
upon him in love, but with penalties of wrath for those who 
will not yield. Shall man defy God ? 

And yet why should men wish to defy him or refuse the 
commands that he has laid upon them ? With a world to 
be redeemed why should not every heart respond with 
eagerness, and every duty be gladly done ? The true soldier 
does not shirk or flinch when in the line of duty; why 
should not this great Christian army arouse itself from its 
lethargy and resolve with a divine enthusiasm, that the work 



I06 1896, AND THE FIVK REDEMPTION YEARS. 

before it shall be done ? Why should not the twentieth cen- 
tury dawn upon a land redeemed and ready to enter, with 
the prestige that conies from well earned victories, upon the 
spiritual conquest of the w^hole world ? With such a cause 
and such an inspiration what earnest-hearted man can refuse 
his help? Must the world be saved and we have no part or 
interest in the work ? 



Half Way Measures. 

Reformation of the church by soft arguments and gentle 
suggestions of defects and shortcomings, evidently will not 
answer. A church that has slept and drowsed by turns for 
fifteen centuries cannot be aroused by gentle pushes and 
whispered reminders that the sun of righteousness is already 
high in the heavens and only needs to be let in upon a 
darkened world. It must be dragged from its flowery beds 
of self-delusion by arguments and appeals that carry con- 
viction with them, and by criticisms that cleave the false 
from the true and leave men no recourse but to accept the 
truth and obey it. And as we stand shivering upon the icy 
floor of absolute truth, which has been made known to us, 
face to face with our duty and with not even the rug of 
dogmatism beneath us, there is but one question before a 
convicted church. Will it crawl back into its fleecy bed for 
another thousand years of fitful slumber and disgraceful 
inaction, vainly waiting for God to redeem it and the world 
about it, through miraculous agencies and by slow degrees ? 
Will it dream of faith and mumble its prayers while it for- 
gets its mission and the glorious victory that awaits its wak- 
ing hours? Or will it stand before its God and the future 
as a brave man would, resolved that it will shake off the 
lethargy of indolence, and that by the grace of God and the 
powder of human might, the world shall be redeemed and 
mankind taught the happiness and peace that come from a 



HAI^F WAY MEASURES. IO7 

full and complete submission to the revealed will of the Cre- 
ator and Savior of the world ? 

Can a sleeping giant transform the world ? Why will not 
men see that droning pra3^ers and sermons that could be 
ground through a phonograph without detracting from 
their effect, are valueless when the times demand action 
and not professions ? The call of God rings out as loudly 
now as it did nineteen centuries ago, commanding the 
church to preach an effectual gospel and to disciple all 
nations, teaching them to observe all things that Christ 
commanded, and not simply the chosen few that constitute 
modern Christianity. Why wdll the church be so blind and 
then complain that the world will not receive its garbled 
message ? 

We must prove to men that we have found the perfect 
and complete Christianity which Christ taught and which is 
to transform the world and our own lives as well. Our reli- 
gion must be proven true before we can consistently ask our 
neighbor to accept it and become subject to it, ^nd it cannot 
be proven true by our words alone. Do we really love our 
neighbors as ourselves ? How then is it possible that our 
neighbors are so blind and unconscious to the fact ? 

I would that it could be made impossible by the common- 
sense religious sentiment of the age for any Christian to 
stand or kneel in the prayer-meeting room and ask for 
heavenly inspiration who has never felt the inspiration of 
his brother's need, or ask for his neighbor's salvation who 
has not already set in motion influences which may reach 
that neighbor's heart and save him. I would that it could 
be made forever impossible for any minister to stand in the 
pulpit and rehearse the platitudes of a gospel of words, who 
has not already aroused the Christian activities of his people 
and persuaded them to adopt common-sense methods for 
reaching men with the gospel influence and benefiting them, 
even if these measures do not result in their salvation from 



Io8 1896, AND THK FIVB REDEMPTION YEARS. 

sin. If the minister has no hving message to offer; if he 
cannot arouse the energies of his people and make them 
Christians in fact as well as in name, let him stand speech- 
less before his God until Heaven itself shall give him words 
that can reach human hearts and transform them for the 
work which Christ demands of us now, as he did when he 
was upon the earth. 

I would that a religion of words and professions could be 
made forever impossible after the year 1896, and in this 
stricture I would include every non-Christian in the land. 
For a religion of professing nothing and yet claiming the 
right of criticizing those who in some small measure are 
attempting to serve God, if not their fellow men, may be as 
rank hyprocrisy as any which the blundering, mistaken 
church members may exhibit. Let every man obey his God 
and serve the age that gave him birth, for each one has an 
equal duty and an equal interest in what concerns the wel- 
fare of all. Why should any man want to shirk his part in 
making this wonderful world which God has given us a 
glorious heritage for men ? 

The church must learn many new lessons, and among 
the rest let it be understood and acknowledged by everyone, 
ministers and laymen alike, that the minister's duty is not 
done when the salary he is paid has been earned. He has 
a duty to God that cannot be settled for with a board of 
church trustees. If the religion of Christ is too exacting, 
and the work of world redemption too hard for these, he 
must still declare the message of Heaven in all its complete- 
ness and all its severity, and when words fail he must find 
other means by which to reach human hearts. He alone of 
Christian disciples is under the imperious command to "go," 
not only to his flock, be it large or small, but to everyone 
within his parish world. The man who heareth may say 
"come," but the consecrated messenger of God cannot 
thus dodge his duty and neglect his mission. And if he 



SONS OF GOD, OR KINGS OF SEI^F ! 1 09 

can be satisfied to carry a word gospel alone to those in 
need, and then charge God or the sinner with any defect in 
the message or deficiency in the result, he is not a true dis- 
ciple of an exacting God. Neither has he caught the spirit 
of this age, which demands thoroughness and exactness, 
even in the manufacture of a pin, but has not yet learned 
to apply the principle to the work of reaching and saving a 
human soul or of redeeming the world. Shall a man rob 
and cheat God in the tale of his duty, who would disdain to be 
found one pin short in the measure of his business integrity. 

Sons of Qod, or Kings of Self! 

Is this too hard a doctrine for the Christian people of this 
enlightened age? Must the martyrs for Christ all come 
from the dark ages of the world's history, or from heathen 
lands, while we give up nothing for him, not even our own 
ease or comfort? Must our ministers preach to us a com- 
forting gospel even to obtain a hearing? Shall we go on in 
the old ways simply because they are easy and familiar? 
Must the cause of humanity wait and linger until we come 
to it by slow degrees and according to the old conventional 
methods which entail no trouble or thought to anyone except 
to the minister and a few unselfish Sunday school teachers? 
While professing love for God must we care so little for our 
fellow men that an innocent child may become transformed 
into a demon before our very eyes and we never realize that, 
even as human beings, we have some interest and care in the 
child's destiny? 

Why should not every man, woman, and child be asked 
and helped to attain to the very best destiny that is possible 
to him, and to improve every opportunity, both for his own 
moral growth and the advancement of the interests of man- 
kind? Shall we " help one another to help all," or shall we 
remain devils incapable of human sympathy or of strict 



no 1896, AND THE FIVE REDEMPTION YEARS. 

obedience to God's commands, only waiting until God shall 
destroy us in his wrath and create a new race who will love 
and ser^'e him? Having been made free and given the 
destiny of gods, must we remain brutes, forgetting every 
instinct of human s^'mpathy and of honest love for God, 
and onh" insisting that we shall be allowed to go on in our 
selfish, heedless, forgetful way, hoping, of course, that God 
will save us in the end, but unwilling to help him save those 
who need salvation even more than we do ourselves? 

Does God live, or must we prove by our inaction and 
indifference that he does not, that the Bible is an old 
woman's fable, and that trust and faith, and our blessed 
hope in a future life is a farce? Will men, when offered the 
sublime destiny of becoming sons of God, refuse it and 
make self their God. each one ruling in his little pigmy 
world of human greed and selfish lust? 

Why will men never think, or, thinking, never act? 

The Lord Omnipotent Reigneth ! 

Men cannot get away from the fact of God's existence. 
Every leaf and tin}^ insect, every throb of light and sound, 
and every thought and feeling in the human breast, give 
abundant proof of the power and wisdom of that greater 
Spirit whose habitation is the universe, and who rules these 
mystic forces of life and matter which we see and feel, but 
which in their subtler meaning are utterly beyond our com- 
prehension. God is everywhere revealed. Xot onlj- do the 
Heavens declare his existence and the earth confirm the 
testimony', but these very intellects with which men are 
wont to scoff at things they cannot comprehend, are but a 
feeble type of the higher life from which all human life has 
come. We know there is a God not onh^ because the 
imprint of his power and wisdom is stamped upon every- 
thing we see, or feel, or know, but because the perfect type 



THE I.ORD OMNIPOTENT REIGNETH ! Ill 

of the faculties we possess cannot be found in earth or in 
the starry heavens. As these are spiritual, and far above 
anything the world of matter can produce, we know that 
the source from which they came is far above ourselves, and 
is spiritual also. 

Man, for all his pride and coticeit, is- but a mere atom of 
life upon the merest universe-speck of matter. He is infin- 
itesimal, the universe is infinite. For him to intimate that 
he is the highest form of conscious life the universe contains 
and that all outside of himself, and above and beyond him, 
is senseless matter or blank despair, is the effrontery of 
ignorance. As well might the mollusk, inhabiting his pail- 
ful of sand and water and thinking the universe contained 
therein, declare himself the highest possible form of life 
and think that the universe -was made for him alone. The 
hand that can write of the deepest truths the human intel- 
lect can grasp, the tongue that can utter the sublimest 
thoughts the human intellect can suggest, and yet can 
declare that this thought and these faculties are the sum 
and substance of all possible knowledge or conscious life, 
are the hand and tongue of a vainglorious fool. These 
very faculties, marking as they do the infinite gap between 
mind and matter, should convince us that infinite possibil- 
ities still exist beyond these conditions of which we are 
cognizant, and that our earth-bound spiritual life is but a 
feeble hint of a spiritual existence infinitely far above it and 
beyond it. What should we, who know nothing of our 
nearest world neighbors even, know of the spiritual life of 
the myriads of hidden worlds we have not even seen, or of 
the great Spirit who inhabits the heart of the universe itself? 
Should infinitesimal worms seek to measure themselves 
with the infinite universe and declare that they are gods 
because they have found nothing to compare with themselves 
in their insignificant world? Because human eyes cannot 
see God must there be no God? 



112 1896, AND THE FIVE REDEMPTION YEARS. 

The man who can look into the starr}- night and, compar- 
ing himself with God's universe, can say that there is noth- 
ing above and bej^ond him, and no spirit Hfe except in the 
human brain, is only another moUusk who would bound the 
universe by his own slimy trail and think the sun but a bon- 
fire built to warm his pigm}^ shell. 

Xo God? Then there is no universe! Our very lives 
are but the delusions of the fevered breath of nothingness. 
Unless God lives, we do not, for we are but the type of infi- 
nitel}^ higher things than any our little off-shoot world can 
^ow. Our e3'es ma}^ pierce the heavens but they have only 
yet found one universe. The spiritual universe in w^hich 
God lives and reigns, is still bej^ond their vision. What 
sublimer universes there ma}^ be besides this one and the 
one of matter, none can tell. Light is one line of commun- 
ication between us and the very farthest sun. Shall we say 
there is no other ? God gave us eyes that pierce the universe. 
Shall we say that no spirit-thrill can return to us from God's 
throne w^hen our hearts are right with him ? 

Ah, little human mollusk, creeping about upon your 
pigmy ball of earth and water, boast not 3'ourself that you 
have discovered everything and that there is no God I 

Serve Ye the Lord! 

It is only the apparent infidelity of Christian people that 
creates doubt and uncertainty in men's minds. If men 
know God and love him, they should ser^^e him. If the}' be- 
lieve in the future life and in Heaven and Hell, they should 
show b}' their earnest zeal in saving men for one and from 
the other, that these are not simply superstitious vagaries of 
the brain. If inspiration and powder is given to those who 
ask for it in faith, why should Christian men stand as tremb- 
ling apologists for the principles of their religion, and meekly 
ask men if they would not like to be saved? Do trembling, 
whispering advocates of Christianity prove a living Christ? 



SKRVK YK THK LORD! II3 

The apparent attitude of tlie church to-day in regard to 
the future life is that of a man who has well nigh decided 
that there is no God, and who is fearful that if he should 
zealously uphold Christianity and seek to advance it by 
aggressive means, tha»t he might be overtaken by the dis- 
covery that it was all a mistake, and thus he would be put 
to open shame. If there is really infidelity in the church, 
and thousands of Christian ministers, as has been stated, do 
not know what to believe, the very best argument the church 
can offer to them and to the outside world is the prompt 
fulfilment of the Christian mission and the demonstration 
that Christianity is true in its promised effects, if in no other 
way. When the spirit of Christ reigns over the whole earth 
men will have tangible proof of the existence of God and 
of his Son, for they will be subject to his will and to his 
law. And we may be very sure that the revelation of God 
will at all times be commensurate with the world's need of 
knowing and recognizing him. He will never leave his true 
disciples in doubt upon this vital point. 

The line of demarkation between faith and infidelity, 
between love for God and for his service and indifference to 
him, seems clear, but it is not always so clear upon which 
side of this line Christian people stand. For actions invar- 
iably speak louder than creeds. The church chooses its 
position upon this and upon every other moral question b}' 
the consensus of deeds, not words. By this test the church 
would appear to stand upon the side of infidelity, because 
it will not fulfil the mission entrusted to it and, thus far, 
has refused to redeem itself from the charge of gross neglect 
and of indifference, not only to God's commands, but to the 
moral needs of the world about it. Up to this time, perhaps, 
it may claim that to a certain extent it has been blindly at 
fault, because it has been surrounded by a dense atmosphere 
of tradition which not only blinded it to the truth and 
deadened its activities, but which seemed too heavy to pen- 



114 1^9^) -^^'D THE FIVE REDEMPTIOX YEARS. 

etrate. But that excuse can no longer avail. The broaden- 
ing thought of the present age will not allow to the church 
a hallowed sanctity in beliefs and customs which its own 
experience and a common sense interpretation of the Bible 
sufficient^ disproves. Words and creeds will no longer 
suffice to uphold its position and excuse inaction. It must 
prove its religion true b}' deeds, not words, and reveal to 
men their Creator and God through the love which the 
Father has given to them, and which they are in duty bound 
to show to the unsaved world. 

If men love God the}" will love their neighbors also. The 
new religion is nothing in the world but the old one from 
which love and service haA^e too long been separated. The 
consecrations at God's altars when we professed to give up 
everj^thing for Christ, must be made good. What we owe 
the Lord must be paid; and we certainly owe him the re- 
demption of this xVmerican world within the next five years. 

Is the demand for honest Christian service too hard for 
the Christian people of this age to accept ? Must we forever 
mock God with a worship from which proven love and hon- 
est service has been left out? Must Christianity' be judged 
by men's professions, and not by their deeds? Of what use 
to the world is a Christian church if it will not obe}' God 
and serve mankind ? 

Let Christian men obey and serve the Lord ! 

The New Crusade. 

A crusade b}' the church or against it, seems inevitable. 
The holiest emotions of the human soul, the noblest impulses 
of the human heart, must not be prostituted to an aim- 
less stirring of men's feelings and the rehearsing of empty 
praises of a God who demands strict obedience. If the work 
of the Christian church is already done; if the world is 
already redeemed and men are living in a perfect brother- 



THE NEW CRUSADE. II5 

hood of sympathy and mutual helpfulness ; if none are left 
outside the pale of a divine salvation and of a human broth- 
erhood but those who can in no way be reached with any 
Christian influence, then let us sit down and listen to homi- 
lies upon religious topics and praise God because he has 
shown us how to bring this wonderful condition of things 
to pass. But if the work of the church is not done ; if nine- 
teen young men out of twenty are not saved and are not in 
sympathy with the church ; if old men are left to curse God 
because of human neglect and human injustice; if the king- 
dom of peace and righteousness .has not come even to the 
church of Christ; if an intense selfishness still rules the 
world and Satan is allowed to have his own way unchecked 
because it is such a troublesome matter to oppose him, then 
let the Christian minister or layman who counsels modera- 
tion and continued inaction, who declared in word or in 
creed that God, and not the church, is responsible for all 
these things and that the remedy is in prayer and in pulpit 
homilies, be counted an enemy of his race and not a friend. 
It is full time that the lines were sharply drawn that men 
may know who are their real friends, and who, professing 
friendship, really stand in the way of human advancement 
because they hold the keys of the kingdom of Heaven and 
will not unlock it to needy men. 

Does this doctrine of the deep significance of the Chris- 
tian's duty and the imperative demands of the Christian pro- 
fession, bear hard upon any? The truth never oppresses 
those who are its friends and who gladly accept its teach- 
ings whenever and wherever they are made known. The 
false conceptions of truth in past ages has blinded many, 
and even now some may but dimly comprehend it. But the 
Word of God interpreted by human reason and the teach- 
ings of human experience, upholds the truth, and men can 
no longer escape it if they would. God is not at fault for 
the moral condition of the world at the present time, but 



Il6 1896, AND THE FIVK REDEMPTION YEARS. 

the church is. And now the redemption 3'ears or the judg- 
ment years for past error and past neglect, have come. If 
the church will not accept them and at once fulfil its duty 
to God and to the world, the judgment of Heaven for wilful 
wrong and neglect may yet fall upon it and no man can say 
that it will not be deserved. The age demands that those 
who claim to represent God upon the earth and to hold -his 
message of a complete salvation for mankind, shall not keep 
that message hidden in their churches or wrapped so closely 
in creeds and dogmas and so hedged about with definitions, 
that even Christian people have not discovered that God- 
love and human sympathy is one and inseparable, and that 
this is Christianity. 

The question before Christian people is simply this : Will 
the church enter at once and wath determined energy upon 
an active fulfillment of its purposes and its avowed duty to 
mankind, bringing to men the blessings of a perfect moral, 
industrial, and spiritual condition in human affairs ; or will 
it continue its present ineffectual methods of reaching men 
and influencing them, and its present insufficient religion, 
thereby winning the world's contempt rather than its admi- 
ration and respect? Will it live, and, living, redeem the 
world, or has it already entered into its dotage and is about 
to give away to positive moral forces which shall enlist 
every man's support and really accomplish the purposes for 
which they were instituted? Can the church any longer be 
depended upon as the divine instrument in human redemp- 
tion, or must some other means be found for uplifting 
humanity and giving to men at once the glorious destiny 
that is in store for the world? Who shall carry the banners 
of God in the final victory of truth if Christian men still 
refuse to march forward? 

The question whether or not the banners of truth and 
righteousness shall be carried forward to speedy victory, is 
one for every individual Christian to decide for himself and 



thp: final contention. 117 

for the organization to which he belongs, and the sad 
thought is that it may be answered honestly and loT^ally, or 
it may be pushed aside as it has been in every year and cen- 
tury of the past. In any human warfare there would be no 
doubt. With the cry of " Forward ! " an eager host would 
rush forward to victory or to brave defeat. But what can 
be expected of the Christian church ? The impotency of 
words was never felt before as it is felt now by the one who 
writes these lines. Some may heed and be spurred into a 
fitful activity, but if we can judge the future by the past, 
the great majority will exhibit but little interest in this, the 
greatest of all important matters. Closing their hearts and 
consciences to the truth as they may be led to see it, they 
w411 go on in the old ways, leaving to God and to the angels 
the plain duties which have been put into their hands, and 
really indifferent as to whether men are saved or damned. 
Ministers will still preach a comfortable religion which calls 
for no service and no self-denial, and indolent Christian men. 
will still believe in it. Out of twenty young men nineteen 
will perhaps justly turn their backs upon the church because 
the church has nothing whatever for them to do, and be- 
cause there is neither enthusiasm or satisfaction in working, 
or in loafing, in behalf of a dead cause. And possibly the 
world will still remain lost until God either destroys it in 
his wrath or raises up a new church to redeem it. 

Will all these things be true of the Christian church in 
1897, or can the hearts of Christians be stirred to enthusiasm 
and the world redeemed from sin ? Does God or Satan really 
rule the world ^ If Satan, are we his disciples ? 

The Final Contention. 

It is held to be self-evident : 

That it is the fault of the Christian church and not of 
God that the world is not saved. 



Il8 1896, AND THE FIVK REDEMPTION YEARS. 

That words and professions, alone, and even zealous wor- 
ship, while they may form a religion, do not constitute 
Christianit}'. 

That the religion of humanity cannot be divorced from 
Christianity and leave it complete, or of any particular value 
to the world. The same command that tells us to love God 
with heart, soul, and strength, commands us to love our 
neighbors as ourselves. If w^e ignore the claims of human- 
ity in our religion, we can have no claim upon the love of 
God. 

That the modern conception of Christianity is not the 
true one; that it is not the primitive Christianity which 
Christ and his apostles taught and so fully exemplified by 
their energy and persistence and in their tragic deaths. 

That being a negative Christianity of feeling, rather than 
a positive one of action, it is not fitted for the active, aggres- 
sive life of the present age of the world. An inactive, neg- 
ative Christianity never has, and never can, redeem the 
world. There is neither inspiration nor self-evident value 
in it. 

That human experience proves that the miraculous con- 
ception of God's dealings with men and with human prob- 
lems is not the correct one; that we are not puppets moved 
about by divine intelligence and energy, but independent 
instruments through whom God's purposes in the world are 
to be accomplished ; that being intelligent instruments and 
not automatons, and having been given a definite part in 
the w^ork of human redemption, God will not trench upon the 
province of our action or become our bidden servant for 
the performance of duties we are too indolent to accomplish 
for ourselves; that prayer and an indolent faith can never 
be made the substitute for honest work and earnest thought 
in the problems of worM redemption. 

Since Christianity is an active force and cannot be made 
into a negative grace, the church is not fulfilling its mission 



THE FINAL CONTENTION. II9 

to the world by preaching a religion of aspiration and fruit- 
less emotion; that nothing but sharp, decisive, aggressive 
action, adapting means to ends and keeping the end persis- 
tently in view, can redeem the church from the charge of 
imbecility and of criminal indifference to the real needs of 
humanity, or save the world. While Christians preach and 
pray and flatter themselves over their optimistic percentages 
of increase, a large majority of mankind, even in our own 
land, is being lost. 

Since Christianity is the only direct and avowed moral 
agency in the world, the demands of the times call for a 
radical change in church methods and systems and an act- 
ual accomplishment of the objects which have been left to 
it as being within its peculiar province ; that the church, in 
leaving the accomplishment of these objects to haphazard 
influences and to a dim and indefinite future when all men 
shall become voluntarily subject to its emotional and insuf- 
ficient religion, is recreant to its duty to God, to the nation, 
and to mankind, and is morally responsible for the soul- 
death of those who are lost through its neglect. It might 
have saved them, but it would not. 

That the times demand decisive measures and a religion 
that can really transform the moral world and save our 
children fron the temptations that now assail them upon 
every hand, and that the church has no right to present to 
the world as the true religion the emasculated Christianity 
which is now preached in its churches and illustrated in the 
moral inactivity of its disciples. If it will not accomplish 
the purposes for which it was organized, it should step aside 
and allow these purposes to be accomplished through other, 
means. 

That with a real Christianity, one that appeals to the 
common sense of the people and enlists their sympath}' with 
the objects actually being accomplished by it, the moral and 
social redemption of our communities is a simple matter 



I20 1896, AND THE FIVE REDEMPTION YEARS. 

and it can virtually be accomplished in much less time than 
that of the few remaining years of the present century. 

That the time has come for a sharp advance in the stand- 
ards of Christian efficiency and duty, for a strict fulfillment 
of the vows and consecrations made at God's altars, and for 
the immediate transformation of our modern Christianity 
from a spiritual grace into a positive, world-regenerating 
force. 

That the time has come for the organization of our entire 
communities upon the Christian basis of mutual helpful- 
ness and an avowed allegiance to God, and it has certainly 
come when every child should be claimed and, firmly held 
for the best possible human destiny, and for its eternal wel- 
fare and the welfare of the world. 

That the time has also come for the gradual obliteration 
of all denominational lines and a common agreement upon 
essential points of doctrine and of practice, and for con- 
certed action in support of Christian principle and in the 
speedy conquest of the world in the name of Christ and of 
humanity. 

That sharp and clear as it is in the Word of God and as 
it ever has been since the Bible was given to men, is the 
distinction between truth and falsehood, between right and 
wrong, between glad allegiance to God and an entire indif- 
ference to his commands, between service and self-denial in 
the cause of humanity and a thoughtless disregard of the 
command to love our neighbors as ourselves, between true 
Christianity and a negative'and misleading religion that is 
but a parody upon it; and that that distinctive line is being 
drawn in America to-day far more closely than it was ever 
drawn before, and that it will be drawn still more closely in 
the future. Upon one side of this line is progress and the 
spiritual conquest of the world, upon the other is stagna- 
tion and an abject yielding to continuous defeat. And it is 
for every individual and for every Christian organization to 



THK FINAI. CONTENTION. 121 

decide upon which side of this Hne they stand. If upon 
the wrong side, they are not disciples of Christ. If upon 
the right side they must prove it, not by professions, but by 
an immediate enlistment in the active service of Christ and 
b}^ winning the world for him. That action, and only action, 
is the test of Christianity. 



A BLADE O' GRASS. 



A Blade o' Grass. 



A Flash-Light Picture from a Human Life. 



Is man the cousin of the brutes? Or has he a destiny 
higher than that of the whelp that dogs her master's foot- 
steps and knows no law but his? When man and brute are 
dead, do they fill one common grave? 

Did God actually breathe into our human bodies the 
breath of a divine life and thus make us heirs of Heaven 
and co-existent with himself, or are we still brutes with no 
destiny but to rot and no hope but to be forgotten ? 

Being only brutes, shall we yet live like men, or being 
men, shall we choose instead the destiny of brutes, denying 
our God and casting our defiance in our Maker's face, and 
using the very freedom he has given us to defeat his plans 
and purposes for our own higher destiny and the perfect 
consummation of his world designs ? Like the brutes, shall 
we at last lie down in graves that cannot bury the decay of 
the soul, however well they may hide the stench from decay- 
ing human carcasses ? 

God lives or the earth itself is a huge farce. A universe 
may possibly create itself and find the balancing forces of 
gravity and motion, but only God can create and fashion a 
human soul. If the soul of man has no destiny beyond the 
grave all nature has come to an absurdity. The highest 
and most perfect creation of the known universe is a brute 
who fulfills no destiny but to rot and to fertilize the earth 



4 A BLADE O GRASS. 

upon which he exists. When the earth also dies, as the 
earth must, the farce will be ended and all will have come 
to naught. Life, love, aspiration, hope, the noblest attri- 
butes of the mind and the holiest emotions of the soul, mean 
nothing, for they are the product of nothing and become 
nothing in the end. And twentj^ billion worlds with their 
big and little brutes inhabiting them, are also naught. For 
each is but a cypher, working out a short-lived, aimless des- 
tiny', and sinking into nothingness again, unknown, unread, 
and unremembered. Matter is eternal, but soul and spirit 
die with each death-bed sigh. Matter is infinite, but 
thought and feeling, love divine and holy emotion, is but 
the vapor of nothingness, arising and falling again like 
summer showers. 

Can the mind of man conceive of so great an absurdity ? 
Has the earth brought forth so perfect a flower as man 
onl}' that he may become nothing again ? Has the death- 
freed soul no destiny but complete extinction? Must all 
other life live again in other and higher life, but the ver}- 
highest of all become a barren mockers' and lead onh^ to 
blank despair? Is the universe onh* a jumble of similar 
absurdities, each as senseless and as aimless as our own? 
Or is there a God over all who fashions and directs these 
infinite possibilities in order that the>' may work out a 
grander conception, a more perfect consummation, than the 
mind of man can grasp in the most daring flights of the 
imagination. 

Although men may continue to say that there is no God, 
although there may be no adequate reason for the existence 
of the universe, or of one human soul, although men them- 
selves ma}' be but pigni}' puppets which a self-created 
nature has placed upon the stage for her own short-lived 
amusement, 3'et there are implanted in many a human 
breast attributes which link us with the noblest conception of 
deit}- which ever found a place in human thought or record. 



A BLADE O' GRASS. 5 

The breath of the Infinite dwells within us, deny it as we 
may. If we are really brutes with a brute's destiny, the 
divine instincts within us should teach us that we should 
yet live like men. If we are but happy freaks of nature, 
at least let us not live like the other brutes who eat, and 
and die, and rot. Let us follow out the divine impulses 
within us and leave a nobler impulse upon the world than 
we received from it, and not shame our God-like spirits 
with beast-like passions and empty lives. 

Does God really live? The fool has answered, no. But 
the wise man beholds God in every pulse-throb of nature, 
and in every human emotion, and gladly taking him into 
his heart of hearts, makes him King of all. As man lives 
so God lives, for man is but the breath of the Infinite, 
dwelling in houses of human clay, but showing in every 
thought and aspiration the infinitude of the universe of 
spirit life. The heart and soul of the universe is God, and 
Him we worship. 

Upon the shores of I,ake Erie there is a summer en- 
campment resort where thousands annually congregate ^o 
learn more of nature and of nature's God. A stretch of 
woodland formerly came down to where the land breaks off 
into the lake with many a bowlder and ragged rock to mark 
the eternal battle-line between the sea and the land. This 
woodland, with the exception of a bit of park upon the 
shore, has been transformed into a pretty rural city with its 
big amphitheater in the center, an ambitious hotel upon the 
shore, and some hundreds of summer cottages closely 
clustered together about its great summer audience room. 
The very existence of this summer city proves that the 
people of the nineteenth century after Christ, still retain 
some of the nomadic instincts of the people of the nine- 
teenth century before his coming. 

The time of our brief visit is that bewitching hour be- 
tween the heat and glare of a July day and the darkness 



6 A BLADES O' GRASS. 

and stillness of night, when nature appears at her loveliest 
and seems to be inviting man to share her quiet repose. 
The air, from being stifling and hot from a persistent land 
breeze, had become cool and balmy as the wind veered about 
and commenced bringing in upon the shore the moisture- 
laden atmosphere of the lake. 

A crowd of people, gathered largely from the larger lake 
cities and the near-by towns, were walking up and down the 
shore of the lake or loitering about in the park. They were 
enjoying to the utmost the cooling lake breeze, and seemed, 
Hke nature, to be under some mystic spell. Here and there 
children were rushing about, as children will until sleep lays 
forcible hands upon them, but the others seemed to be in 
rhythmic sympathy with the swelling waves that broke at 
regular intervals upon the rocky beach, and with the mur- 
muring wind. 

Among those moving so idly about were two men who 
were apparently renewing the friendship of an earlier day 
and were discussing some subject upon which they were not 
agreed. As is often the case .in friendships formed in earlier 
life, one of the men seemed to be positive and aggressive in 
character, a natural leader among men, while the other was 
quieter in disposition, although, perhaps, no less strong in 
his convictions. Approaching a bench upon one end of 
which a keen eyed, dark complexioned young man sat, the 
leader of the two men sat down, leaving room at the other 
end of the bench for his companion. 

"Oh, well, it will be all right when we get up to Glory, 
Joel," he said. "We wont need to argue over matters of 
theology then." 

" Yes, indeed ! " his friend exclaimed. " It will be all right 
up yonder, Ame." 

But Amos Kerr, the first speaker, apparently thought 
that he had admitted too much or had spoken too fervently. 
■^^ After all," he continued, "how do we know that there is 



A BI,ADK O' GRASS. 7 

any such place as Heaven? There is no real proof of its 
existence. One man can see into the future just as far as 
another, and as far as we can see, death ends all. No one 
we are acquainted with ever comes back to tell us about 
any such place. The dead never speak." 

"You forget that Christ arose from the dead," said Joel. 

"No, I don't. But suppose I am skeptical upon that 
point as well as upon the rest?" Kerr answered. "What 
real proof have we of his resurrection, outside of the three 
or four witnesses who have written an account of it?" 

"What better proof have we of any fact in history? It 
seems to me that the testimony of three or four honest 
witnesses ought to be sufficient. It is only necessary to 
prove them honest, and in this case their acts and words do 
that for us." 

"Yes, but suppose that these few men were deceived, or 
deceived themselves ? Or even suppose that they honestly 
entered into a plot to deceive the world for the world's 
good? The Jesuits claim that the end justifies the means, 
you know." 

" But you must remember that the resurrection of Christ 
was an acknowledged fact, not only to the disciples, but to 
the whole early church. The whole fabric of Christianity is 
based upon it as its central truth. I do not believe that the 
whole band of the early disciples were insincere men, or if 
they were, that the whole civilized world could be trans- 
formed and civilized by such a lie as that would have been. 
And I do not believe that millions of Christians, to-day, are 
deceived when they say that they have within themselves 
the evidence that Christianity is true." 

But Kerr's thoughts had run onto another point of his 
creed of unfaith, entirely ignoring his friend's argument. 
" I cannot believe in your idea of a personal God, either," 
he said. " It seems to me that a God who would punish 
a man eternally for committing a sin in this life, which is 



8 A BLADE O" GRASS. 

as a wink of an eye compared with eternit3\ would be an 
inhuman God and one unworthy- of worship. You sing: 

'When I've been there ten thousand vears. 
Bright, shining as the sun. 
I've no less days to sing God's praise, 
Than when I first begun.' 

And all this time, and for all the eternity that follows after, 
according to 3'our theolog}*. God is punishing a poor sinner 
for the mistakes he has made in this moment of time we 
live upon the earth. An immortal punishment for a mortal 
sin! I confess I cannot understand it in the least."" 

"You do not need to understand it. do you?"' his friend 
asked, rather weakly. It was a point he was not very clear 
about in his own mind. 

There was a ner\'OUS movement at the end of the bench 
where the young man sat, evidently an eager listener to the 
conversation, but Kerr did not appear to notice it. ''Yes, 
I do," he said. " I am an intelligent being and have a mind 
that was given me to use in all such cases. \Vhen these 
questions come up I want to understand them thoroughly 
before giving assent to the principles involved in them. All 
punishment worth}' of the name is reformatory. Anything 
more than this is simph- revenge. When a man reaches the 
point where he is willing to repent and reform, he ought to 
be allowed another chance.'' 

■' How do you know that he will ever reach that point if 
he does not reach it in this life?"" Joel asked. "There 
is no limit upon the time for real repentance as long as this 
life lasts."" He was making as brave a defense as he could 
upon the spur of the moment, but he was evidentl}' not 
quick witted enough for a clever disputant, and Kerr was 
getting beyond his depth. He had probabh' never listened 
to these skeptical arguments before, and he had no argu- 
ments clearly defined in his own mind with which to meet 
them. 



A BLADK O' GRASS. 9 

" In that case it will be hivS own lookout, I suppose," 
Kerr answered, " He takes his chances. But you take it 
upon yourself to tell him that if he does not repent in this 
little moment of time he is upon the earth, it will be eternally 
too late. After that the devil may have him and roast him 
upon his gridiron forever." Kerr smiled grimly at his own 
exaggerated way of stating the case, and seemed quite will- 
ing to dwell upon the thought. 

Meanwhile the stranger at the end of the bench got up 
and walked away a few steps, as if undecided what to do, 
and then returned and sat down again. If Kerr noticed 
him at all it was with the satisfaction of one who gladly 
welcomes a larger audience when he thinks that he is get- 
ting the advantage in an argument. " An eternity of torture 
for an insignificant sin!" he continued. "How can you 
worship such a God as that?" 

" No conscious sin against God is insignificant," said Joel. 

"Yes, it is!" exclaimed Kerr. "Without thinking of the 
consequences I do something that is not quite right. And 
we all do that. The best man that lives is not perfect. My 
sin may not harm any one but myself. But for that sin I 
am condemned to suffer for endless ages ! You may believe 
in such a God, but I cannot. I must believe that if any one 
is saved, the whole human family will be. I am not so 
much worse than you that I must be damned through all 
eternity, while you sing psalms forever. You know that I 
am not quite so bad a rascal as that, Joe." 

"I know that you are a first rate good fellow, Ame, and 
the best friend that I ever had; but there is one great differ- 
ence between us. Even if I do not understand everything 
about the future life, I acknowledge that I am a sinner and 
ask God for mercy, while you do not. I am afraid, Ame, 
that you read too much of Ingersol and too little of the 
Bible. It doesn't pay to try to climb up into Heaven some 



lO A BLADE O' GRASS. 

Other way than the Bible wa}-, even if one can boast of 
being as good, in a certain sense, as one's neighbors." 

"And think of another thing!" Kerr exclaimed, catching 
at a new thought from the association of the word. He was 
evidently more anxious to air his own arguments than to 
listen to those of his friend. "Just think w^hat Heaven will 
be. Full of little babies and imbeciles, for 3'ou believe that 
all these will be saved, while Hell will contain such men as 
Darwin, Herbert Spencer, Ingersol, and some of the bright- 
est intellects that were ever known — 

"And August Spies, Herr Most, and 'Blinke}^' Morgan," 
suggested a voice at his elbow, "to sa}- nothing of ten 
thousand million or so of vagabonds, criminals and villains, 
of foul women and still fouler men. We know that these 
will be condemned. Hovv^ do you like this part of the com- 
pan}^ 3'ou — thief?" 

An angry flush came into Kerr's face at this last word of 
his strange interlocutor, but the open smile with which the 
charge was accompanied quite disarmed him. " Isn't that a 
pretty strong word?" he asked, answering the smile rather 
than the words of the stranger. 

"No; it is not half strong enough," was the half joking 
reply. "I was tempted to put two or three vigorous adjec- 
tives before it. I have been listening to you pretty much 
against my will until I am rather wrathy. You have not 
stolen anyone's pocketbook ; 3^ou might have got some good 
out of that. But it seems that 5'ou have been tr3'ing to steal 
the faith of your best friend, something that would have 
done 5^ou no good if 3'ou had succeeded — mind, I do not say 
that 3'ou could succeed — but would have cost hini his hope 
of salvation and an eternit3^ of happiness. I have caught 
3'ou in the very act, so 3^ou will be compelled to plead 
guilt3'." The last words were spoken with a low, mellow 
laugh that quite took awa3" the sting of the words them- 
selves. 



A BLADE O GRASS. II 

"Suppose I do," Kerr answered in the same spirit. He 
saw that it would only place him at a disadvantage to show 
resentment. " Don't you see how that illustrates my argu- 
ment? I am responsible for that sin, and my friend Ford, 
here, is the innocent victim of it. But because I have stolen 
his faith he will have to suffer through all eternity. Is it a 
just God who punishes him for my sin?" 

" God never punished any one save Christ, only, for 
another's sin!" the stranger answered earnestly. "Your 
friend has no business to allow you to rob him of his faith. 
That would be his part of the sin and for that he would be 
punished, if we can call rejection, when one has the oppor- 
tunity to win an immortal prize and refuses it, by the name 
of punishment. But it seems to me that the man himself is 
the one who does the punishing. Can you escape that con- 
clusion? He has the choice and chooses the fate that pleases 
him best. And we must remember that every one has the 
faculty of judging and must be held responsible for his own 
faith and his own obedience. The foulest son of a wicked 
father has a clear sense of right and wrong, and the power 
to choose the right if he only will. If he will not, he has 
no right to expect anything but the consequences of his sin, 
and if these are eternal it is so much the worse for him." 

"I don't know about that," Kerr said. "Man is the pro- 
duct of his environment, and is not wholly responsible for 
his character. He may have the power to break away from 
surrounding circumstances as a last resort, but very few are 
able to muster up the will power necessary to accomplish it. 
You cannot blame the crooked tree for not becoming straight." 

"You are wrong there," exclaimed the stranger. "No one 
but a basswood man or a man of putty is the product of his 
environment; never a man of energy and common sense. 
Are you obliged to walk forever in the straight jacket that 
your parents or your wicked companions have placed upon 
you? Because you have been taught or allowed to do a 



12 A BLADE O GRASS. 

certain thing, must 3^ou keep on doing it indefinite!}-? The 
man who is pushed and pulled about until he has no indi- 
viduality of his own, is onl}^ fit for an imbecile asylum. He 
is the product of his own folly and putty-like indolence. 
The true man rises above his circumstances, and makes his 
own environment. It is easy to see that 3'ou cannot plead 
imbecility in this matter. You are a rebel without excuse. 
You have robbed God, even if 5'ou have not succeeded in 
robbing 3^our friend." 

"A rebel?" asked Kerr, flushing again. The tables had 
been turned upon him with a vengeance. The impetuosity 
of the stranger's words left him no opportunity- to formulate 
arguments against them. He could only take refuge behind 
such minor objections as occurred to him. 

"Yes; did you not just now boast that 3-0U were not a 
rascal? For the sake of the argument let me show you how 
great a rascal 3'ou are in God's sight. You know that you 
sat down here and compelled me to listen to your arguments 
against my will, or hunt another seat. You have no right 
to complain at being repaid with interest." The stranger's 
musical laugh rang out pleasantlj- again. "What would 3"0U 
be if you held the same relation toward your government 
that 3'ou do toward 3'our God? That little button upon 
3-our coat shows that 3'ou ought to be able to appreciate that 
argument. You know that 3'ou would be a rebel. How 
much more of a rebel must 3^ou be when 3-ou reject and dis- 
dain the commands of your Creator, of your Heaven!}' 
Father? Can a man defy God and yet not be gui!t3' of sin?" 

"Suppose 3"0U prove that I have a Heavenl3^ Father. I 
do not say that I have not. But it is for you to prove the 
fact before 3'ou condemn me for being a thief, a rebel, and I 
don't know how many other things." Kerr laughed confi- 
dentl3^ for he believed that this would bring the argument 
to a point where he would be able to hold his own, if not to 
demolish his opponent. 



A BI^ADE O GRASS. 1 3 

The young man arose from his seat and stepping across 
the walk, plucked a single blade of gra.ss. Returning, he 
stood up in front of the bench where he had been sitting, 
and, resting one foot upon it, held up the blade of grass in 
his hand. "There is your proof," he said, simply. 

"How so?" asked Kerr, rather taken back at the novelty 
of the argument. 

"That is your Heavenly Father's signature, which no one 
can even duplicate, the sign manual of his creative power. 
Men did not make this, did they?" 

"No one claims that men had anything to do with crea- 
tion." 

"Could you, or any other human being, with this pattern 
before you, make a blade of grass like this?" 

"No; certainly not." 

" But you are a representative of the very highest intelli- 
gence that ever existed upon the earth. Geology proves 
this. If this intelligence, with all the resources that modern 
science and invention places at our command, cannot create 
a blade of grass, or even reduplicate it, what power did cre- 
ate it?" 

"Nature." 

" Have you ever considered what you mean by the word, 
nature, when you use it so glibly ? There is nature in her 
primitive form, out yonder. Rocks, air, and water. That 
is all that existed before God created the grass of the field 
and animal life. If nature, and not God, created the grass, 
she ought to be able to reduplicate her work. Suppose you 
ask the rocks, air, and water yonder, to make you a blade 
of grass?" 

Kerr's friend laughed outright at the suggestion. Kerr, 
himself, would have answered but he recognized the compar- 
ative weakness of any answer he could make, and was silent. 

"And when the^^ have made a blade of grass, let them 
make a man! " the stranger continued. " Don't you see that 



14 A bi,ad:e: o grass. 

it is ridiculous, and that you cannot get away from God by 
trying to put nature into his place . I know what 3'ou 
would answer. That these processes have been going on 
for millions of years and that in some w^ay or other, how 
you can scarcely conjecture, but through some conditions of 
heat and moisture that do not prevail now, the first blade of 
grass bearing fruit in itself and the first animal life were 
created. After that the rest seems easy. Any Yankee can 
make a clock, taking another clock as a pattern, of course. 
But did any Yankee ever make a clock that would run of 
itself a dozen years or more, and then make another clock 
like itself in order to keep up the succession? Given a clock 
like this we might possibly figure out a self-reproducing 
steam engine out of it, but there would still be the Yankee 
behind it all. But you say that man has no designer but 
blind chance, and no creator but the assistant forces of 
nature. The instincts and the attributes of a God in the 
product, but no God in the creation! A very god within 
his earth-bound limits, but not allowed to be a tj'pe of a 
higher being of which w^e can know nothing through our 
material senses. Is it not an absurdity? Can you recognize 
the sublime fact of the existence of man in all his glorious 
attributes, and 3^et positively deny the existence of God, at 
once the perfect consummation and source of all these attri- 
butes?" 

"But Darwin shows how the processes of an orderly de- 
velopment may be made to account for all these results," 
Kerr persisted. "You cannot ignore the teachings of science 
in regard to the wonderful development which has taken 
place in plant life and in animal organism." 

"Certainly not, nor do I care to ignore it," the stranger 
answered. "I simply say that it comes very far short of 
accounting for the origin of either material or spiritual 
things. Darwin admits the fact of what he calls a missing 
link or two, but it is in reality the greater portion of the 



A BI.ADE O' GRASS. 15 

chain itself. He shows growth and development, and no 
one disputes that, but he does not explain creation, or ex- 
plain how the elements of nature obtained their marvelous 
properties which, in fact, constitute the very highest proof 
of God's existence. Only revelation tells us that in the be- 
ginning, God created the heavens and the earth and gave 
to the elements the properties they possess. Only the Word 
of God tells us that when the physical man was perfected, 
God himself breathed into his nostrils the breath of a divine 
life and man became, in the image of his Maker, an ever 
living soul. There is a soul in man. You cannot den}^ this 
even in a physical sense. There is also a soul in matter 
since the compass turns to the pole wherever it may be, and 
man can stretch his copper wire about the world and com- 
mand it to speak to those who dwell beneath our feet. 
Think you that there is not also a soul in the universe, and 
that this sentient, living, creative power is not God himself? 
Is man or matter greater than the universe since these pos- 
sess a soul and the universe does not? My friend, evolution 
and the reign of law will not help you in your argument. 
They do not go far enough. Back of evolution and back of 
law there must be the Creator and the Law-giver. And, 
knowing the infinite gap between himself and matter, and 
yet realizing the real limitations of his powers, man is the 
last one in the universe to deny the existence and power of 
his Creator, God." 

" But even admitting all you claim, it does not fully prove 
that there is a God," Kerr declared. "There is still room 
for a reasonable doubt as to the fact of his existence." 

"It proves it as far as we need to go," the stranger said. 
"I set up the Bible and a blade of grass and rest mj^ case. 
These ar^ certainly proof sufficient to demand our obedience 
to the creative and ruling sovereignty that they reveal to 
us, and to the spirit of truth and reason that is revealed in 
every line of the Word of God, and in every demand that 



1 6 A BLADE O' GRASS. 

it makes upon us. There is but one alternative open to those 
who den}' this testimou}- and these demands. It is to over- 
throw it b}- conclusive rebuttal evidence. Can 3'ou do that? " 

"Of course no one can prove that the Bible is not true in 
its essential particulars, and that there is no God. I can 
readily admit that." 

" It seems to me then that 3'ou will be compelled to obe^^" 
The stranger's laugh rang out pleasantl}* once more. " The 
proof may not satisf}' j'ou, but such as it is, it is all on our 
side. You cannot disprove a well supported affirmation by 
a bare negation. With ten thousand m^^steries in the world 
that you cannot possibly explain, 3-0U cannot claim that it is 
proven that there is no God simply because 3'ou have not 
seen him." 

" But 3'our idea of God, or the Bible idea, if you choose 
to call it so, is an unreasonable one to me. How can I obey 
a God whom my reason tells me is unjust or inhuman?" 

"Is God unjust or inhuman to those who obey him 
full}'?" the stranger asked, warml}'. 

'■ Perhaps not. But we are all iiis creatures. He is re- 
sponsible for our being. Why should he condemn us 
because we are weak or foolish?" 

"Because he has made us capable of the highest wisdom 
and the greatest strength!" the man answered earnestlv. 
"He has made us but little lower than the angels in mental 
and spiritual capacity, and we — we sometimes sink lower 
than the brutes ! Is there no reason for condemnation in 
that? The animals are his creatures, but that gives them 
no claim upon Heaven. How much less is a human being 
entitled to it who, being god-like in his attributes, makes 
himself a brute, and a disobedient one at that? If we are 
God's creatures we are under his law, and if that law is 
inexorable, as all good laws are, there is nothing for us but 
to submit. Do men wilfulh' break human laws and then 
.plead the bab}' act to escape punishment? God is a God of 



A BLADE O GRASS. 1 7 

justice only to those who refuse to obey! To all others 
he is the all-merciful, all-loving Father. If a man is a rebel 
he has no right to prate about mercy. If he is an obedient 
son he has no reason to be troubled about justice. Your 
only trouble seems to be that 3^ou want the mercy without 
the submission. Is that reasonable? Is it honest? Is the 
father unjust or inhuman who demands prompt obedience 
from his child? Applied to human conditions your theory 
of an indefinitely postponed submission and a final salva- 
tion would overturn all right government and make every 
child an incipient devil, as too many of them now are. You 
can surely see enough of the results of that polic}^ all 
around you. What right have you to expect that it would 
work better under eternal conditions that you know nothing 
about? Why should you want a weak, grandmotherly policy 
adopted for the especial benefit of the spoiled children? 
Does such a policy make men strong and self-reliant, or does 
it make them the weakest and most despicable of men ? 
When you appeal to reason, my brother, you should be sure 
of your premises. If you appeal to reason you must be a 
just judge, and not simply make your reason an excuse for 
disobedience." 

The stranger's words came hurriedly, as though many 
thoughts at once were waiting for utterance. It was evident 
enough that he was upon familiar ground. His earnest 
manner, too, was an indication that he had wrought out this 
knowledge by dearly bought experience. 

" But the people who -do not accept Christianity are not 
all incipient devils, or full grown ones," Kerr said. " Many 
of them are as kind hearted and as honest as Christian 
people. What are you going to do with these in the future 
world? How can you reconcile their punishment in the 
next life with your idea of an all-merciful Father?" 

"Suppose we clear up our understanding of that word, 
punishment," the stranger said. " I am not sure that any of 



l8 A BI^ADK O' GRASS. 

US are clear upon its meaning, or that we understand the 
Bible signification of the word. I do not think it means 
punishment in the sense of retaliation, and no thinking man 
can claim that. It is contrary to the whole spirit of the 
Bible. But the Bible does seem to teach eternal rejection 
for wilful sin that is not repented of. Is there anything 
wrong or unjust in that? Can there be any greater sin than 
rebellion against God? Why should any one think that a 
tender heart could atone for that! Mind, I am not lim- 
iting God's mercy. I do not know what he will do with 
honest doubters in the judgment day. But if the people 
you refer to refuse to submit to the simple test which God 
places before them, why should they receive greater consid- 
eration than those who have far greater excuse? Remem- 
ber, no one has a claim upon Heaven. It is a free gift to 
those who come to God in the way he has pointed out. The 
test of manhood is not a tender heart. It is willing 
obedience to all rightful authority. Else it were useless that 
God breathed into our nostrils the breath of a divine life 
and made us his sons. Man was probabl}^ a good enough 
animal before that, and the animals have tender hearts as 
well as we. If the divinely endowered man will not obey 
the one who has thus honored him, what can God do but 
reject him? Is he still under obligations to whip him into 
Heaven by a course of reformatory punishment?" 

"He might give him another chance," said Kerr. 

"How can he give him another chance without a return 
to the same conditions, and if he were under these, of what 
benefit would his chance be to him? He has twice ten 
thousand chances already. His conscience is a daily evan- 
gelist to him, and every day is a fresh opportunity to redeem 
the past and to serve God in the future. Do you realize 
that this life is something unique in its relations to the 
future life ? It is the birthplace and training time of the 
soul ! It is the only possible testing time for men. Suppose, 



A BIvADE O GRASS. 1 9 

for the sake of the argument, that man should he given a 
taste of future punishment as you call it, and then be sent 
back to live his life over again. What effect would it have 
upon him except to substitute an utterly selfish motive for 
those of love and duty which now actuate the true Chris- 
tian ? Do you think that God wants men in Heaven after 
they have been whipped out of Hell ? My friend, you do 
not use your intellect half enough. Reason tells you that 
this life ends forever your trial and determines whether you 
go into the next life an obedient child of God, or a rebel 
against his authority." 

"You still fail to reveal an all-merciful God," Kerr per- 
sisted. "Your God is a God of exact justice to the great 
majority of his creatures. I cannot believe in a God who 
permits two-thirds or more of his human creatures to perish 
because they are weak or foolish." 

"Have you. ever considered that weakness or folly may 
be the greatest of sins when we have clearly the power to 
overcome them? Did you ever hear of an all-merciful judge 
who pardoned every culprit who came before him on account 
of their weakness or folly ? What logic is there for a mercy 
that is always on tap for any rascal who feels the pricking 
of the law. Has not God provided an easy and a sufficient 
way for the salvation of everyone? Surely he could not 
make the test easier than it is. It is not God that is at fault, 
my friend, but stubborn and rebellious man. He will not 
be saved because he prefers his own way to God's way. You 
are like the rest of the modern idolatrers. They will not 
accept the God that both nature and the Bible reveal to 
them, but persist in manufacturing one out of 'reason,' one 
who will allow them to go on in their own wilful way to the 
very end, and yet save them by some hocus-pocus process 
in another world. The creed-makers are hardly done with 
the Bible before the God-makers commence with it. And I 
am afraid that I shall have to class you among them. It is 



20 A BLADE O GRASS. 

the last of the indictments I shall bring against 5^ou." Once 
more the musical laugh broke the harshness of the spoken 
words. " The}^ want to make a new God and a new Christ 
according to some improved notion of their own; and 5^ou 
will alwaj's notice that they either make a namb^'-pamby 
being who cannot reject sinners because he is so merciful, 
or one who is so far away that he has no concern with sin 
whatever. The indifference toward God and to his com- 
mands is to remain in either instance. They even banish 
Hell, for that implies punishment for the disobedient. But 
the new God is, after all. only a deification of the idea of 
self. The ver}- foundation of their creed seems to be that 
the human will is omnipotent. Man should not be asked to 
jdeld allegiance, even to his Maker. The real God. the one 
who created the universe, is either dead or sleeping. He no 
longer has the power of revealing himself to men. Miracles 
are impossible. The Bible is a book of fables. The Savior 
of mankind is onh' the historical outline of a ver}- superior 
human being. And having demolished, as the}' think, the 
onh^ evidence of Heaven, the}' proceed to create a new one 
to their notion, and propose to save men b}' allowing them 
to do as the}' please! Great is the man-made religion! 
Great is the Diana of modern reason!" 

The stranger paused, but Kerr did not answer immedi- 
ateh'. From the eager disputant, he had become the willing 
listener. He took no offense at the speaker's home thrusts, 
for he more than half acknowledged their truth. " If we 
were only sure! " he said at length. 

"Sure of whati^"' the stranger asked. " Sure that there is 
a Hell so that we might repent and thus escape it? You 
do not mean that, I know, my brother?" 

"No, but sure of ever^'thing; sure that there is a God; 
sure of the truth of the Bible." 

" Of what real benefit would certainty be to us? Do you 
not see that it would destrov the fundamental idea of our 



A BI.ADE O' GRASS. 21 

religion, faith in a God that we cannot see with our natural 
eyes ? If a man were sure of the existence of God and ot 
his power to punish or to reject for sin, the great element 
in our repentance would be fear. But even then he would 
probably be as foolish and as stubborn as ever. You and I 
know that if the legend, ' lyove God and serve him ! ' w^ere 
written in letters of light across the sky it would be an old 
story in six months' time, and some scientist would proba- 
bly be trying to explain it away upon natural principles. Is 
the legend less forcible because it is spelled in innumerable 
stars, and not in words? God has revealed enough of his 
power, and of his love and tender mercy to merit our love 
and allegiance in return. If we will not give him these it 
is not our reason that is at fault, but our stubborn wills. 
Why cannot 3'ou see, my brother, that God knows best, and 
that everything is just right as it is, except man's attitude 
toward his Maker? That 3^ou and I with our little insigni- 
ficant brains and our shortsighted eyes, cannot make a bet- 
ter God than Jehovah, or a better plan of salvation than the 
one he has offered to us ? The grand idea of making a race 
of beings in whom perfect love and perfect freedom should go 
hand in hand, is one that is well worthy of the great God 
who inhabits the heavens and who created the universe. It 
is not a failure although it may seem so to our puny eyes, 
and we ourselves are the obstacles to its complete success. 
God could have made religious machines far more easily 
than he could have made the perfect manhood with which 
man was first endowed. If we use the very freedom he has 
given us to rebel against him, it does not alter the beauty 
of the conception or the grandeur of the plan. What are 
you and I that we should find fault with God's work ?" 

A little knot of peopKe, attracted by the man's eloquence, 
had gathered about them. It was already dusk, and the last 
bell for the evening service had already rung. Some upon 
theoutskirtsof the crowd were asking: 'Is that Sam Jones?' 



22 A BI,ADE O' GRASS. 

The fact that he was attracting unwelcome attention cut 
short the stranger's words. Hastily introducing himself to 
the two men and learning their names in return, he departed 
into the darkness and the crowd melted away. 

"I thought that he must be a minister," Joel Ford said to 
his companion. "I am glad that we happened to sit down 
here, for he answered you a thousand times better than I 
could. I never heard one who seemed to have everything 
so clear in his own mind. He must have gone through the 
whole thing himself" 

"He is a regular Methodist fire-eater!" Kerr answered, 
-laughing. "I could no more keep up with him than I could 
'keep up with a steam engine. But he has given me some- 
thing to think about. I am not sure but that he is right, 
after all." 

"Of course he is right!" said Ford. "You will see that 
it is the truth 3^et. We need the help of such men as you 
in the church, Ame. You do not know how much you 
might help the work along if you would turn in and help 
us, instead of keeping men away from us by your doubting 
•opinions. Shall we go and and hear Sam Jones? He must 
be speaking by this time." 

**No, I thank you. One such sermon a day is all that I 
can digest. Your Sam pitched into me last night, and now 
this man has used me up worse than ever. Sam only called 
me a rascal, but this man calls me a thief, a rebel, an idola- 
trer, and I don't know what else besides. And the worst of 
it is that he seems to make out a pretty strong case against 
me. I wonder if my wife suspected what a box she was 
getting me into when she brought me down here? I 
half believe she did, the artful madam ! No, Joe, you 
go and hear Sam Jones. I will stay here and think 
it out!" 

Meanwhile one in the little crowd that had gathered about 
the disputants and who had seemed greatly interested in the 



A BLADK O' GRASS. 23 

argument, watched the departing stranger in a way that 
revealed something more than a mere passing interest. It 
was as if she had recognized a long lost friend and j^et lacked 
the power to reach out and restrain him, or to make herself 
known. With another lady who was her companion, she 
had passed and repassed the little group two or three times 
until the gathering crowd had given them an excuse to 
linger. Her eyes had lighted up with something more than 
admiration as the stranger's eager utterances had revealed 
something of his strength of mind and of character. When 
he stopped speaking she drew a little farther back into 
the shadow so as not to attract his attention if he should 
chance to turn toward them. When the crowd melted 
away the two ladies resumed their apparently aimless 
walk. 

"Wasn't he eloquent!" exclaimed the lady's friend. 
"Who is he, I wonder? There are so very few, even 
among ministers, who are really in earnest, and who act as 
if they believed anything!" 

"His name is Hunter," was the lady's quiet response. 
But there was something in the tone that immediately 
attracted the other's deeper interest. 

"Do you really know him?" she exclaimed. "I won- 
dered, at first, why you were so interested. Where did you 
get acquainted with him? In Cleveland? I am sure I 
never met him there. I should have recognized a kindred 
spirit at once if I had. Is he married?" 

The number of questions she was given to answer helped 
the lady to regain her full self-possession, if that were neces- 
sary. "Yes, I met him in Cleveland," she answered. " He 
attended our church for quite a little while and we became 
rather intimate. He is a minister, of course. A layman 
could never defend his faith in that eloquent way. And he 
is not married. At least I have not heard that he is. Does 
that interest you particularly?" 



24 A BIvADE O GRASS. 

" Oh, certainl}'/' the lady answered. There had been a 
little guile in the question. " But I cannot understand why 
you did not speak to him if you had been so intimate." 

" I simply preferred that he should recognize me first, and 
be the one to claim an acquaintance." 

Her friend looked at her sharph^, but she was too late to 
discover anj^thing of the other's feelings that her words did 
not reveal. " Would she reall}^ marry a minister?" was the 
thought in her mind. "With her wealth and position in 
society, I cannot believe it. And yet she would make an 
ideal minister's wife! " 

And they, too, went into the darkness. 

Alas, how often Fate brushes us with her wings and goes 
her way, and we never know that she has been near us ! 



THE CHRISTIAN LEAGUE. 

"No soul unsought; no child not vjon^ 

"Let us help one another to help alV^ 

" The very best destiny for every one.'''' 

"Every man our brother, and God the Father of all. ^^ 

Dear Friend: 

"The Christian League" is the name given to a movement as yet 
unorganized, for promoting Christian zeal and activity, and for extend- 
ing the Christian influence to every person in each and every com- 
munity. The definite objects of the League, representing as it does 
practical Christianity, are as broad as the needs of humanity, audits 
scope as v^dde as humanity itself. 

The unit of organization in the League is the Neighborhood Club, 
composed of a few cengenial families in each neighborhood and hold- 
ing friendly relations with all other clubs that may be organized, as 
many of these clubs as may seem best being represented in a central 
league. The Neighborhood Club itself will be largely social in its 
character, although holding fast to all helpful and moral purposes; 
the League will be largely deliberative and administrative, and 
through it the larger purposes of the organization may be carried out. 

This practical system for extending the Christian influence to every 
person in each community and carrying to them the benefits of a 
brotherhood among men, is essentially a Christian work and the 
church should take the lead in it, but where it neglects to do this 
there is no reason why any earnest Christian man or woman should 
not inaugurate the work and obtain what help they can to carry it 
forward. Even the organization of a single Neighborhood Club will 
be a nucleus from v/hich the work may be extended until all of the 
objects of the League shall be accomplished. 

The details of this work can largely be left to the judgment of 
those who engage in it, provided the highest objects of the organiza- 
tion, as suggested in its mottoes, are kept prominently and persistently 
in view. Let it be determined that the Christian influence and the 
benefits of a brotherhood among men shall be carried into every home, 
and the method will not matter so much as the measure of the work. 

You are earnestly urged to inaugurate this effective method of 
Christian evangelization in your community, or to institute measures 

I 



that will result in its adoption or the adoption of some equally feasi- 
ble plan for aggressive Christian Tvork. Amid the signs of marvelous 
progress in every other line of human effort let it not be said that the 
Christian people of this century are impotent before these plain prob- 
lems in Christian ethics, and can find no way of spreading the Chris- 
tian influence except by dry sermons and aimless prayers. 

If you will take the lead in this work and will see that it is carried 
forward by every means in your power please notify the writer of this, 
so that a record may be kept of those who are prominently engaged 

in this special work. 

W. H. Bishop. 



The above circular letter will be sent to those wishing to promote 

the work of the Christian League or of practical Christianity, provided 

stamps for return postage are enclosed with the request. State how 

many copies are wanted and whether for local distribution or to be 

sent away to friends. 

Crusader Publishing Company. 



''A really glorious hook.^^ — Boston Ideas. 



THE GARDEN OF EDEN, U. S. A. 

A Very Possible Story. 

By W. H. bishop. 



WHAT PEOPLE THINK. QF THE BOOK, 



Better than "Looking Backward." 

It is a story on new lines; a story that cannot fail to become the 
literary sensation of the year. It is no impossible dream as was Bel- 
lamy's, but is even better than Bellamy's ideal and is fully possible of 
realization within a year or two, and to people as they exist to-day. It 
is both practical and possible. — Toledo Blade. 

It is a dual romance which, in some respects, contains grander and 
more practical ideas than Bellamy's "Looking Backward." It gives 
lucid illustrations of better conditions, with strong arguments for 
liberal social advancement and a higher civilization. — Progressive 
Thought. 

It is an intensely interesting book, just as " I^ooking Backward" 
is, but, after all, it is but a dream.— Hartford Post. 

It is the most natural and practicable scheme of the kind of all 
which have been proposed. The picture is a remarkably symmetrical 
and inclusive one, and the community described is free from most of 
the blemishes which have been evident in the idear social colonies 
described by Mr. Bellamy and others. The standard of manhood and 
womanhood is very noble and beautiful, and the reader will find him- 
self uplifted and benefited as well as interested by the book. — Congre- 
gationalist. 

A Book for Women. 

When a man can look into the heart of an ideal womanhood with 
such appreciative and sympathetic eyes; when he can conceive and so 

3 



boldly and generously portray a type of womanhood dear to the pro- 
gressive women of our day, surely the dawn of a new era is breaking 
grandly over the horizon of the twentieth centur3^ Women who have 
been keeping faith in a grand ideal w^omanhood, one that is as strong 
as it is gentle, as self-reliant as it is pure, as aspiring as it is loving, 
will feel like grasping the hand of this generous champion of their 
freedom, and acknowledging the debt of gratitude they owe him. It 
seems to the reviewer that every woman would do well to read this 
new Eden story, the woman of advanced ideas because of the courage 
and inspiration which it wall give her to stand by her convictions, and 
the conservative woman because of the awakening power of its clear, 
strong, rational arguments in favor of this splendid womanhood which 
is the noblest product of the century whose star is just sinking. — 
Blanche Fearing in the Christian Leader. 

The story suggests, incidentally, a readjustment of domestic econ- 
omy that will preserve the sacredness of homes, but at the same time 
will release women from their dull round of cooking, dusting, wash- 
ing and baby tending, and open up to her some useful activity suited 
to her taste and capacity. All this is told in no dry fashion, but in the 
course of a delightful story of modern life and love, interesting, clean, 
helpful and strong. — BosPm Budget. 

In this story the perfect equality between men and women is elab- 
orately worked out; each takes precisely the same burden in work, in 
pleasure, and in studies. When the inevitable marriage comes it is a 
little hard to see just which takes the initiative or which is to take 
the leading part in the married life; in fact the inference is that each 
acts pretty much independently. — Salt Lake Tribune. 



A Modern "Uncle Tom's Cabin.'* 

Who knows but that Mr. Bishop's book may be the "Uncle Tom's 
Cabin" of the present day? The story that shall arouse public senti- 
ment and point the w^ay to the emancipation, not of one class, but of 
all classes who are willing so accept their freedom, a freedom from 
old time usages and narrow social customs. — Mrs. E. C. Sparr, in 
the Toledo Blade. 

The book is an attempt to show in fictional form that the condi- 
tions of a moral and a social Eden are easily attainable under our 
present civilization. Wayne Morrison, its hero, is not merely a crea- 
tion of the fancy, but one who actually leads the way toward a better 
and a more consistent future. The industrial features of the story are 
well worthy of attention. — Chicago Post. 

4 



A Book for the Reading Public. 

Mr. Bishop has written a very entertaining story. His conversa- 
tion does not lack for brilliancy, or his love scenes for novelty, and 
any man who can add a new element to a love story makes the read- 
ing world his debtor. But until the world is full of the spirit of 
"otherism" his scheme is impracticable. But what may or not hap- 
pen in the years to come need not hinder anyone from reading the 
story. It will at least induce thought, and that is something.— C/im- 
tian at Work. 

We have noticed that ideal cities require ideal citizens to fit in 
with their conditions. Mr. Bishop well says that better social and 
industrial conditions can be realized only by concessions upon all 
sides. We are afraid that it will be a long time before these condi- 
tions will come. Meanwhile the reader will be immensely pleased 
and instructed by the ideal city the author has brought before him. — 
Zion's Herald. 

We give Mr. Bishop due credit for cleverness, and his story has its 
points of attraction, luring us away from the nauseating socialism of 
the London novelists and making us forget for one moment the Yel- 
low Book cast of people. And yet the book is not the great American 
novel. — New York Independent. 

A more superb presentation of " Looking Backward," in which not 
a paternal government, but a youthful multi-millionaire ' founds an 
ideal community — Literary World. 

One of the best of the many novels of modern times having 
for a motive social reform. The reformation set forth is chiefly social, 
but also municipal. One of the chief reformations is the independ- 
ence of woman, making her fully the equal of man. The interesting 
feature of the book, however, is in the unique love story which runs 
through it and which is very original and cleverly presented by the 
author. — Indianapolis Sentinel. 

It is a clever, pleasing novel, and is sure to acc^uire favor. — Elmira 
Tribune. 

The author, W. H. Bishop, has proven himself to be a writer of 
fertile resources and charming imagination. — Oakland Tribune. 

A very pretty love story. — San Francisco Post. 

For the Practical Reader. 

The most attractive feature of this city to the practical reader will 
be the " Domiciles," or residence edifices. They are built with special 
reference to the distribution of cooked food to each apartment, and 

5 



are so arranged that people may at all times have either the seclusion 
of the individual home or the more public life of the hotel. The 
separate kitchens and sculleries are happily abolished, but the home 
life still centers about the dining table three times each day, not under 
the glare of the public dining room, but in the privacy of one's own 
home. The Eden system is woven in with a verj^ interesting love 
story, the actors of which are intensely in earnest. It contains a moral 
of Christian helpfulness and courtesy to those who are willing to profit 
by it. — Illinois State Register. 

The author has a good supply of modern notions about solving all 
economic problems by starting civilization over again upon a new 
tack, and to many readers these ideas will always have a great attrac- 
tion. — Sioux City Journal. 

It is the story of a young man of philanthropic ideas who has 
brains enough to neutralize his theories and so is able to establish a 
little Eden here on earth. But it is a state of things hardly to be 
hoped for until the coming of that, thousand years when Satan shall 
be chained and cast into a pit, and shall deceive the nations no more. 
— Nashville Banner. 

In this book we have a Utopian colony of ten thousand people 
where all are upon a level, rich and poor contributing to the general 
result. Magnificent structures, the greatest inventions, the most per- 
fect system of government, are pictured. All religious faiths are blen- 
ded into one and the people are happy and in accord in everything. 
If such a condition of affairs is possible, then indeed we must have a 
day of the millennium. — Sacramento Evening Bee. 

'*A Really Glorious Book.*' 

In this book Mr. Bishop has w-ritten one of the strongest of modern 
attempts to portray the desirable possibilities of humanity's future. 
He gathers up all of the essential tendencies in to-day's progressive 
ideas, and puts them into the mind of one fortunate individual who 
possesses both the capacity for starting them into concrete expression 
and the necessary money to be initially expended. The book is really 
glorious in its reasonable portraj-al of the things which many of us 
believe to be inevitably coming in the not far distant future. Every 
detail is of interest, whether it has to do with human emotions, human 
comforts or human luxuries. In fact the community makes true free- 
dom a fact for all. The story is a fascinating one and will naturally 
receive — a thing to be greatly desired — a wide reading. It will attract 
and hold the thought while contributing to one's real pleasure. Phil- 
osophy, understanding, experience, feeling, foresight, have all given 

aid thereto, — Boston Ideas. 

6 



A story of an ingenious system of '* multiple living," in which 
there is no wasted labor or unnecessary expense. In the "domicile," 
as portrayed by the author, human living is reduced to a system, but 
all the concomitants of a perfect social life are provided for. — Journal 
and Courier, New Haven. 

The theory of the co-operative kitchen is in accord with the devel- 
opment in other lines of work. The housekeeper's millennium will 
be slow in coming to the small cities, but such books as Mr. Bishop's 
will undoubtedly bring the subject under more general discussion. — 
Lewiston Journal. 

A book dealing with the same problems as *' Looking Backward," 
and in a more rational and agreeable manner, appears with the sub- 
title, A Very Possible Story. And this is true if we are given to start 
with, a sage and philanthropic young multi-millionaire who is anxious 
to help the world forward to the millennium. Kden City is a delightful 
place; but, alas ! every city cannot be so favorably situated. The 
experiment is a sort of Brook Farm experiment upon a larger and more 
verified plan. The book is well worth reading and the little essay at 
the end is a serious plea, with the title, Why not ? — Boston Common- 
wealth. 

The Other Mr. Bishop. 

Mr. Bishop, the author of "The Garden of Kden, U. S. A.," writes 
us that he is not Mr. William Henry Bishop, the novelist and instruc- 
tor at Yale, as we supposed. Mr. Bishop proposes to use only the ini- 
tials of their common Christian names, leaving the full use of these 
names — his usual signature — to the other Mr. Bishop. This is proba* 
bly as good a plan as could be followed. — Congregationalist. 

7 



A MODERN CRUSADER. 



(IN PRESS. 



The third book of the Crusader Series, "A Modern Crusader," will 
be the story of a young minister who became intensely in earnest and 
who could see no reason why the modern world should not be conver- 
ted to Christianity at once. Unlike "The Garden of Eden, U. S. A.," 
the story is a thoroughly conventional one, and will show how even 
conservative Christian people may become enthusiastic and really 
accomplish something worth their while in the work of world regen- 
eration. The men and women whom Paul Hunter met at his new charge 
in the manufacturing town of Rockwood and succeeded in enlisting in 
his local crusade, are typical and real. Like "The Garden of Eden, U. 
S. A.," the romance is a dual one and lyonda Hurlburt, whom most 
people will recognise at once and love at sight, easily becomes the 
principal heroine of the story, while quizzical John Warren becomes in 
the portrayal one of the noblesl tj^pes of the American workingman. 

Everyone who reads "1896," and many who do not read it, will 
want to read "A Modern Crusader," for in that the ideas of the former 
book are given concrete expression, although in a milder form. Al- 
though written long before "1896" was thought of, it breathes the 
same spirit of Christian progress and earnest zeal and teaches the same 
common sense Christianity, 

The book will be issued in the spring, and will be well worthy of 
a permanent binding, but all advance orders for the limited paper edi- 
tion will be filled. 

Price, in Paper, 50 Cents; in Cloth, $1.00. 



The Crusader Series. 

Quartefly^ $L00 per Year. 



No. I. Thk Garden of Eden, U. S. A. 

Price^ 50 Cents, 

No. 2. 1896, AND The Five Redemption Years. 

Price^ 50 Cents. 

No. 3. A Modern Crusader. 

(In Press) Price^ 50 Cents. 



Trade Price, Each Book, 30 Cents. 




:51 

\,( .TOLEDO. 0. )J ) I 



